




















'T^' ^^' 



'.^^^^r '^' 



'>^^ 










°o 



^ /■:,-. 













^°'^'^^. '\^^^ 



The Autobiography 

of 

Charles Peters 



In 1915 the Oldest Pioneer Living in California 
Who Mined in 

''The Days of Old, 
The Days of Gold, 
The Days of '49.'' 

Also Historical Happenings, Interesting 

Incidents and Illustrations of 

The Old Mining Towns in 



The Good Luck Era 

T/ie Placer Mining Days 
of the '50s 



Price 50 Cents (Sent Postpaid) 

The LaGrave Co., Publishers 

P. 0. Box 1077 Sacramento, Cal. 



7 



The Autobiography 

of 

Charles Peters 



In 1915 the Oldest Pioneer Living in California 
Who Mined in 

''The Days of Old, 
The Bays of Gold, 
The Days of '49." 

Also Historical Happenings, Interesting 

Incidents and Illustrations of 

The Old Mininof Towns in 



The Good Luck Era 

The Placer Mining- Days 
of the '50s 



Price 50 Cents (Sent Postpaid) 

The LaGrave Co., Publishers 

P. 0. Box 1077 ^' Sacramento, Cal. 






TLLUSTRATIONS drawn and copied by Miss Lesley Jones, 
-*- Sacramento. California. Engraved by Commercial Photo 
Engraving Co., 563 Clay Street, San Francisco. California. 



Printed by PERNAU PUBLISHING CO. 
753 Market Street. San Francisco 



A 




Illustrations 



Page 

1. Charles Peters Frontispiece 

2. San Francisco in 1846 4 

3. Sacramento in 1850 5 

4. Charley Peters and partner starting for the 

mines 6 

5. The Dry Creek Justice of the Peace, etc 8 

6. Washday at Charley Peters' Cabin, on 

Jackson Creek, in '50 10 

7. Charley Peters and ''Do It" — Ground 

Sluicing 12 

8. Charley Peters entering his tunnel on Negro 

Hill 15 

9. The Hanging of Escobar 18 

10. Charley Peters on Sunday in '58 20 

11. Belle of the Ball in '58 22 

12. The Jackson Stage the day after Gibbons 

arrived in Sacramento 26 

13. The Kennedy Mine 28 

14. Jackson in 1855 30 

15. Charley Peters' Table at the Pioneer Miners' 

Picnic near Jackson 32 



Preface 



This book is published with the expectation and for 
the purpose of assisting the autobiographer in obtaining 
sufficient funds to supply him with the necessaries of 
life in his declining years ; also, to picture with his- 
torical happenings, interesting incidents and illustra- 
tions, the Good Luck Era; the Placer Mining Days 
of the '50s. 

"Those days of Old 
Those days of Gold." 



When every man 

With his pick and pan 

Could make his stake; 

When an ounce a day 

Was very poor ipay 

And looked much like a fake; 

When a few sardines, 

With pork and beans, 

Which every man could bake; 

Made up a feast — 

Not fed back East — 

When he flopped a flapjack cake. 




CHARLES PETERS 
Aged 90 Years and 6 Months 



The Autobiography of 
Charles Peters 

MY full name is Carlo Pedro Deogo Landier de 
Andriado. It means in English: Charles Peter 
James Landier of Andriado. The latter being 
the name of the city my family originated in. 

Like an animal encumbered with too long a tail, I 
found my full name to be unwieldy, so I amputated it 
at the second joint soon after leaving home. I have 
called myself and have been known for nearly eighty 
years as Charles Peters. 

I was born on January 12, 1825, on the Island of 
Fiol, which is off the western coast of Portugal and 
belongs to the Government of Portugal. 

My father's name was the same as my own. He 
held a position in the service of Emperor Dom Pedro 
when I was born. He was the owner of a large vine- 
yard, employing about twenty-five men to handle the 
harvest of grapes and make the wine which he marketed. 

My mother's maiden name was Anna Isabel Pellates. 
My parents were both descendants from the ancient 
inhabitants of Portugal called Lusitanians ; who ruled 
the land before the Carthaginians under Hannibal and 
the Romans under Julius Caesar conquered the country. 

I was the only child. My father lived his three 
score and ten, while my mother was 99 years, 11 months 
and 20 days old when she passed away. It was a great 
shock to me when I learned of her death in her prime, 
for I fully believed she would outlive the nineteenth 
century and reach the average age of her ancestors of 
over 120 years. 



Owing to the continual absence of my father from 
our home, attending to his official duties in Lisbon, I 
was almost all of the time under my mother's care, and 
looked to her entirely for guidance and instruction. 
I was sent to school when I was five years old and, 
while there were one or two studies I was good in, it 
soon developed I was not born to be a scholar, and I 
steadily fell behind the other scholars of my age in 
my studies, until, at the age of ten, I was in an embar- 
rassing position. The social standing of the scholars 
was divided into two classes; the children who wore 
shoes and those w^ho went barefoot. My mother had 
strong objections to my associating with the poorer 
children who went barefoot, but, somehow, I preferred 
to mix with them, rather than with the children of the 
more prosperous parents. On account of this prefer- 
ence, my mother caught me in the only untruth I ever 
told. She accused me of playing with the barefoot 
children, which I denied, but she had the proof. I got 
a severe whipping and had red pepper put into my 
mouth. Then I listened to a lecture on the evil of 
lying that I remember to this day and I have been 
truthful ever since. 

On account of my inability to learn my lessons, I 
began at the age of ten to look for my future career 
on the deep blue waters of the sea. A desire to emulate 
the deeds of my famous countryman and ancestor, 
Magellan, began to kindle the fire of a marine ambition 
in my brain. One day an American vessel came in and 
anchored in the bay; the school teacher dismissed school 
and with about four hundred school children, I went 
down to the dock and cheered and cheered and saluted 
the American flag. When I heard that the captain was so 
pleased with our reception that he had told the Consul 
he w^anted one of the boys to go with him as his cabin 
boy, I applied for the place. I pleaded with my mother 
and got her consent to go upon my promise that I 



would obey her precepts and come back the captain of 
a ship. The captain promised to be my guardian, and 
^vhile ni}^ mother, before we sailed, regretted her action, 
3^et, she bade me keep my word. My father was now 
the private secretary of Queen Donna Marie at Lisbon. 
When my mother sent the document she and the 
captain had signed, to him, he was very angry and sent 
messengers to take me from the ship, but they came 
too late for the ship had sailed, and for the next 
thirteen years I was with Captain Pendleton on whaling 
voyages on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. His home 
was in New London, Conn., and we delivered our 
cargoes and obtained our supplies from the New 
England ports we arrived at and sailed from on our 
voyages. My experience on board the whaler was 
uneventful, except in one instance. Of course, for the 
first few weeks after leaving home, I was seasick and 
homesick, but the feeling of distress from these causes 
soon passed off. But, had I had the authorit}^, I would 
have turned the vessel back and returned to my native 
land never to be a sailor again. 

One afternoon the captain and the first mate left a 
large plug of chewing tobacco, from which each had 
cut a piece and put in their mouths, on the cabin table. 
I thought that it would make me more of a sailor if 
I followed their example, so I took a good sized chunk 
in my mouth and began to chew. I swallowed the 
saliva it produced, not knowing it was necessary to 
expectorate it. The result was I became the sickest boy 
that ever fell into a bunk on a ship. The captain 
thought I was going to die but never knew what disease 
I had, because I was afraid to tell him the cause. I 
have never tried to chew tobacco since. 

On a whaling voyage to the Arctic and Pacific 
oceans in 18.1:6, our vessel entered and anchored a few 



daj^s in San Francisco Bay. It was a good sized village 
then, but we had little thought of it becoming the 
city it now is. 




SAN FRANCISCO IN 18J:6 



I was in New London, Conn., in 1848, when the 
news came of the discovery of gold in California, and 
I soon got the gold fever. I sailed in the ship ''Elfa" 
from New York with several hundred other '49ers. 
Captain Porter was in command and when the vessel 
passed the Farralones he sent for me and said: 
"Charley, you have been here before, can you pilot 
this ship into San Francisco Bay?" I replied: "Yes." 
So I took charge of the vessel as pilot and landed " it 
safely and was given three cheers by the men and 
women there when we came to anchor. Captain Porter 
said: "Charley, that was worth $500 to me," and he, 



in a feeling of great generosity, paid me $20 for my 
services as pilot. 

I arrived in Sacramento with two sacks, made from 
sail cloth, filled with my personal effects. I carried 
the sacks on my back fastened with leather straps 
under my arms. 




SACRAMENTO IN 1849 



I hired out as a cook for $200 a month and, after 
working a few weeks, I became acquainted with a 
man from the mines. He proposed we go to Columbia 
and go to gold mining and I agreed. We were going 
to walk and when we got ready to start it required 
two men to lift my two sacks of things upon my back, 
they were so heavy. A man standing by said to the 
crowd around me: "That man has a load for a 
jackass." I replied: "You had better carry it, then." 

Now, like Samson, I have never shaved, but, unlike 
Samson, a Delilah has never shorn me of my locks — 
or my pocketbook — but I do not attribute to anything 
else except my life at sea, the fact that I was blessed 
with prodigious strength. I carried my load easily 



for ten miles without stopping to rest and then my 
partner, who had begun to fag, proposed we take a 
rest. Although, it was raining, I told him to come 
along when he was rested and I continued on in my 
usual stride. About ten miles further on I overtook 




CHARLEY PETERS AND PARTNER STARTING FOR THE MINES 



a teamster with a span of horses and his wagon stuck 
in the mud. "Hey Cap," said he, "ain't you got a 
big load? Don't you want a rest?" I said: "No, 



I haven't had to take a rest j^et." "Well," said he, 
''put your load in my wagon and help push over the 
bad places and I will give you a ride." "All right," 
I said, and putting my pack in his wagon I began to 
push on one of the wheels. In a few minutes he 
yelled: "Hey! Stop, Cap! You're pushing the wagon 
on top of my horses." He told me afterwards that I 
was equal in strength to his horses and if he had me 
with him all of the time, he would never get stuck. 
I finally reached 'Dry Creek about eight miles from 
Columbia. The storekeeper there was the justice of 
the peace and kept a bar and a boarding house in a 
big tent. He had forty-six boarders and charged an 
ounce ($18) a week for board. There was a big, 
burly fellow there who proposed to go into a partner- 
ship w^ith me and work a claim. I agreed to it as I 
was looking for a chance to dig gold. Several of the 
miners there now began to warn me against the man, 
sa.ying no man had stayed long with him and all 
had had trouble with him and he had thrashed two 
or three of his partners within the past two weeks. 
As I was not afraid of any man living, I bought a 
shovel for $6 and started in to work with him. On 
the fourth day I found my shovel gone. When my 
partner saw I had no shovel, he began to curse me. I 
challenged him to fight and the men from the other 
claims gathered around us. The big bully struck at 
me, with his fist, a vicious blow, but I dodged and gave 
him a swat under the ear that sent him flat on his 
back on the ground. Every time he tried to get up, 
I gave him another and he, finally, too weak to talk, 
whispered, "enough." The justice of the peace was 
his friend and wanted me arrested, but every boarder 
threatened to quit his house if he did, and he finally 
subsided. I worked the claim alone for awhile and then 
a miner came along and induced me to go to Jack- 
son. I bought a span of horses and a supply of grub 




THE DRY CREEK JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, ETC. 
8 



and with my things started for the better diggings. 
In Forman's Gulch, about ten miles from Mokelumne 
Hill, I found a man with his wife and sister-in-law 
working a placer claim. The man wielded a pick and 
shovelled the pay dirt into a bucket which his wife 
carried a couple hundred of feet to where the sister- 
in-law, a comely maiden, rocked the rocker. I have 
always been susceptible, and I am now, to the flattery 
of the female sex, and when this young maiden ex- 
pressed a wish that she had my physical strength, in 
order to perform her task easily, I took her place and 
rocked for about four hours and also aided in an occa- 
sional clean up, which showed the claim was paying 
over an ounce a da^^ After awhile, I found the young 
lady was more interested in the result of the clean ups 
than basking in the sunshine of love, so, somewhat dis- 
appointed, I resumed my journey toward Jackson. 

On my arrival in Jackson, in the latter part of 
1850, I built a log cabin. The first night I slept in it 
I had the company of three rats. During the night, I 
felt something cold moving across my feet and thought 
it was one of the rats getting friendly. In the morning 
I found a rattlesnake curled up in a corner of my 
cabin. It had thirteen rattles, an unlucky number for 
it, for I quickly sent him where he would cease from 
rattling and my weary feet could be at rest. 

On the North Fork of Jackson Creek, I went in 
partnership with a Frenchman named Douet to Avork 
a claim. Owing to mispronouncing his name, we called 
him "Do it." He Avas quite an expert, and finding 
a good flow of Avater coming down the gulch, he pro- 
posed to ground sluice the bank. We dug a ditch 
and soon had the Avater undermining the bank and 
caving it down in large chunks Avhich Ave manipulated 
in the stream of water with our picks, and, as the 
stones Avere washed from their covering of earth, aa^c 
cast them out. I had only been using the pan method 




10 



of mining which gave a frequent result that encouraged 
and enthused one as the yield was small or large. 
We worked about nine hours ground sluicing, during 
which time I did not see a color and felt quite dis- 
couraged. Unless a nugget was as big as a man's fist, 
it would hardly be seen in the flood of muddy water. 
"Do it," at last, suggested we clean up and while 
I went and turned off the water, he got his pan and 
a big clasp knife ready. When the flow of water 
ceased, he seated himself on the bedrock and with the 
pan between his knees began digging w^ith his knife the 
mud out of the crevices and dropping it into the pan. 
Soon a yellow gleam began to appear in the pan and 
then my hopes began to rise. Then a nugget, weighing 
at least two ounces, dropped with a bang upon the 
bottom of the pan and "Do it," with an exclamation 
that sounded like "Kee-ees-lf^ee-Dee," looked up and 
smiled. "Have we struck it?" I asked. ''Oui, Oui," 
said he, and then I knew tve had. When "Do it" 
finished his cleanup and we started for the cabin to 
cook our supper, we had over nine pounds of gold dust 
in our pan. But it was the hardest work I had ever 
done. ]\ry back ached, my feet were wet and cold 
and my hands w^ere numb. I realized then, that, while 
there was plenty of gold in the ground, it could not 
be picked up with ease. Hard labor and often poor 
results to many, with lucky finds to the few, I could 
then look into the future and see. A pang of pity 
passed through my mind as I thought of the many 
physically weak men I had seen rushing through Sacra- 
mento to the mines and of the many I had seen on my 
tramp to Columbia and journey to Jackson, who were 
totally unfit to cope with the conditions of hard work, 
exposure and privation it required to mine in the 
placers for gold. 

On a Sunday I went over to Butte City prospect- 
ing and met an Englishman who had been mining in 

11 




12 



Hunt's Gulch, and he gave his opinion in the follow- 
ing characteristic language: 

''By me soul, Peters, this is a great country! 
Here, a man can dig up as much gold in a day as he 
ever saw in his life in London. I have got already 
more of the bloody stuff than I know what to do with 
and I've only been here a week. I came here without 
a bloody farthing in my pocket. The Frenchman who 
keeps the shop down on the bottom of the hill wouldn't 
trust me for a shilling's worth of bread. 'If ye got 
no money, go dig,' says he. 'I'll not dig on Sunday 
for any blarsted villain,' says I. 'Then starve,' says 
he. But I didn't, though I had an empty belly until 
Monday came, and then I dug an ounce and on 
Tuesday, two ounces, and on Friday I had two pounds 
of the bloody stuff with a lump as big as my fist, I 
got all this luck from not working on Sunday. Peters, 
did ye ever see such a big country as this?" 

Hunt's Gulch, referred to by the lucky English- 
man, was one of the richest placer grounds in the 
State. It was first located by a Frenchman named 
Hunt in 1848. He dug a fortune out of its banks in 
a few months and went back to France. It flows 
from the ridge about two miles from Jackson, between 
two steep hills, down into the Mokelumne River. It 
was worked over for the fourth time in 1852, and it 
was then estimated that over three tons of gold, valued 
at a million and a half dollars, had been taken out of it. 
It was worked for the ninth time in 1858 by Joe Mason, 
two brothers named Gleason and a man named Daven- 
port, who built a flume and with a big head of water 
were washing dirt on an extensive scale. In Febru- 
ary, 1858, they cleaned up, after a six days' run, 15 
pounds of gold valued at over $3000 and in one week 
in July, 1858, they cleaned up 34 pounds valued at 
$6900. How many tons of gold and how many mil- 
lions in value this auriferous gulch yielded, can only 

13 



be conjectured and not computed. I passed Hunt's 
Gulch by when I had a chance to obtain a claim there, 
because a miner, named Halsey, in August, 1852, found 
a ten pound nugget worth $2000 near Clinton, on the 
]\Iiddle Fork of Jackson Creek, and I thought there 
must be a flock of them there and acted accordingly. 

In November, 1851, a couple of negToes began pros- 
pecting on a hill near the town of ^lokelumne Hill. 
They sunk a hole about fifteen feet deep and found 
gravel that showed free gold. They filled' a flour sack 
full of this dirt and one of the negroes toted it down 
to the gulch where there was a flow of water to wash it. 
It yielded nearly four pounds of gold valued at over 
$750. Subsequently, they found dirt that paid $10 
to the pan. This started an excitement. When the 
news reached me on Jackson Creek, I, with others, 
who were making less than an ounce a day, imme- 
diately joined the rush and went to jMokelumne Hill 
as fast as our legs would take us. "When I got there 
everybody, except the Jews, who never worj^ed a placer, 
and the prisoners in jail, were gone to Negro Hill, 
the name given the scene of the new discovery. Nearly 
all the saloons were closed up. The saloon and bar- 
keepers all were locating claims. The courthouse was 
deserted; the county officials, with everj^body else in 
the town, had gone to the place where rich deposits 
had been found. I proceeded quickly to the place. 
It resembled a human ant hill. I was too late to secure 
a location, for locations had been made a mile or two 
on each side of Negro Hill when I got there, but 
I secured not one job, but two. I found two men 
who desired to employ me and I went to work days 
for one and nights for the other, each paying me an 
ounce a day. I went without sleep for six days and 
while I was phj^sically able to stand the strain, men- 
tally, I was not, and I went under a doctor's care. 
It cost me nearly all of the twelve ounces I had earned 

14 



to get back into a normal condition again. I had been 
so successful and honest in my work for one of these 
men that he soon had all the gold he desired and gave 
me the unworked portion of his claim, amounting to 
about seventeen square feet. Out of this I took 




CHxVRLEY PETERS ENTERING HIS TUNNEL ON NEGRO HILL 

nearly seventeen pounds of gold. On parting with him, 
he said: ''Now, Peters, that I have all the gold I 
want, I'm going back home to New York and the first 



15 



thing I'm going to do is to gratify mv fondest 
wish." '' What's that?" I asked. '' Peters, ''^' said he, 
''I'm going to buy a pair of suspenders for each 
pair of trousers I own." 

When I was about fourteen years of age, I was 
baptized and became a member of a Baptist Church. 
I suppose it was due to my love of the water that I 
joined that sect, for all religious creeds look alike to 
me. There may be some difference in the route taken, 
but all their patlis lead to the same destination, so, 
on my return to Jackson from Mokelumne Hill, I 
found the Rev. Mr. Fish trying to organize and build 
a Methodist church. I turned to and helped him to 
success. Soon after this church was organized, a 
big Methodist revival was started in Drytown. Among 
those converted was an all-round sporting character 
named John Rix, who w^as the champion foot racer of 
this section of the State. His religious ardor started 
him out in an endeavor to build a church and he sought 
for subscriptions among his former sporting associates. 
He, one day appeared at Jackson and there met a 
man he had beaten in a foot race several months pre- 
vious and this man challenged him to a hundred yard 
contest for $100 a side. Mr. Askey, one of the pro- 
prietors of the Louisana Hotel, with several other 
strong supporters of all forms of sport, agreed with 
Rix to meet the defi and if Hix won to let the winnings 
go toward building the church. The foot race was run 
on a Saturday afternoon on Water Street in Jack- 
son and was witnessed by a large crowd. Rix, with the 
fervor of a supporter of the Lord, won with ease 
and then his trouble began. The foot race caused a lot 
of gossip and comment, and when Rix endeavored to 
turn over the stake, the Methodist minister and the 
deacons of the church refused to receive it, as it was 
tainted money. I learned afterward that Rix, unable 
to apply the money toward the building of the church, 

16 



backslided and painted the town red in the interest of 
the devil. 

The Young American Hotel, built over the IMiddle 
Fork of Jackson Creek where the Broadway street 
bridge spans it, was a great gambling resort in the 
'50s. It's spacious barroom had several billiard tables 
and poker tables galore. One night, I strolled in to 
look on the rapid exchange of wealth, good and bad 
luck was causing, and became a witness to a thrilling 
episode. A sport called "Blue Dick," who always car- 
ried two revolvers and a bowie knife and had a local 
reputation of being a man ready to shoot on the slight- 
est provocation, w^as playing poker with three other 
men. Finally, ''Blue Dick" and one of the other 
players w^ere dealt good hands and began calling and 
raising each other until "Blue Dick" demanded a 
sight, having put up his last dollar. This his oppon- 
ent refused to give him, claiming, he had revolvers 
and jewelry of value which he could pawn and see 
the bet. With an oath "Blue Dick" laid his cards on 
the table and drawing his bowie knife sunk it into the 
table an inch deep through the cards, thus fastening 
them to the table. Then saying he would kill any man 
who touched his poker hand w^hile he was gone, left 
the saloon to raise more money. 

There was a little boy about six years of age who 
lived next door to the hotel and was a sort of a pet 
among the gamblers. They had taught him to chew 
tobacco, to swear and to play cards. He was nick- 
named " Shellabark, " after a little Shetland pony that 
had performed in a circus a year or so before. While 
the three players were engaged in conversation awaiting 
"Blue Dick's" return, "Shellabark" climbed upon his 
chair and unnoticed, pulled three of the cards from 
the blade of the bowie knife before he was seen and 
stopped. Two of the players, considering discretion 
was their best act, picked up their money and do- 



17 




18 



parted. The other player, recovering from the shock, 
quickly replaced the cards so that they appeared to be 
in the same place that "Blue Dick" left them; kept his 
seat and drew his revolver. This, he carefully exam- 
ined and cocking it, held it down by his side awaiting 
the return of his adversary. "Blue Dick" returned 
in about half an hour. He had been unsuccessful 
in his effort to get more money to bet. He withdrew 
the bowie knife, turned over his poker hand and 
studied it a moment, then, without noticing it had been 
disturbed, with an oath, threw it aside and gave up 
the pot. He left the saloon a few minutes afterward 
and there was a big sigh of relief when he departed. 

Of course, every pioneer has told of the high prices 
that prevailed in the early days; how flour sold for 
a dollar a pound ; onions and potatoes a dollar a piece 
and a can of sardines for two dollars and a half, 
but the highest priced commoditj^ I saw during this 
period was raisins. I sat on the counter of a store in 
Jackson one evening, when a Digger Indian came in 
with several ounces of nuggets tied up in a rag. He 
put the package in one bowl of the scales and lacon- 
ically spoke the word "raisin." The storekeeper 
leisurely walked around the counter, found a box of 
raisins and returning to the scales began dropping 
raisins, one at a time, as if they were too precious 
to part with, into the other bowl of the scale. When 
the raisins balanced the gold, he emptied them into a 
paper bag which he handed to the Indian who de- 
parted satisfied. Raisins at $16 an ounce would make 
a Fresno grower turn over in his grave, if he heard 
of such a price now. Another high priced commodity 
I once saw w^as watermelon seeds. A miner, a neighbor 
of mine, bought a watermelon from an lone Valley 
grower for $2 in 1851 and saved the seeds. These he 
put up in packages of about twenty seeds in each and 
sold them the next Spring to miners, who Avanted to 

19 




CHARLEY PETERS ON SUNDAY IN '58 



20 



plant them, for $1 a package. He cleared over $;]() 
from his thoughtfulness, but, the distribution killed 
the business, for next season watermelon seeds were so 
plentiful they could not be given away. 

On the night of August 6, 1855, a gang of Mex- 
ican robbers entered the Rancheria Hotel in Amador 
County, and after killing five men and the landlady 
and wounding several other men, robbed the hotel 
safe of about $10,000 in gold dust and then made 
their escape. Great excitement prevailed and three 
IMexicans were lynched by a mob from Drytown. 
Sheriff Phoenix, with a posse from Jackson, pursued 
a portion of the gang into Tuolumne County. A battle 
between the officers and the Greasers occurred near 
Chinese Camp in which Sheriff Phoenix and two of 
the robbers were killed. Rafael Escobar, one of the 
band, was captured in Columbia by Deputy Sheriff 
George Durham, and brought to Jackson on August 
22nd to be held for trial. Durham and his prisoner 
were promptly met by a reception committee of citizens 
and in less than thirty minutes afterwards the picture 
of the hanging was taken. I was in the crowd, but, I 
am not the man up in the tree. Escobar was the tenth 
man hung from the limb of the live oak that overhung 
Main Street. The tree was destroyed in the great fire 
of August 23, 1862. 



During the '50s the Volunteer Fire Department was 
a leading factor in celebrations and social entertain- 
ment. How we ''tripped the light fantastic toe" then 
will be shown by the following copy of a programme at 
one of our grand balls: 



21 




BELLE OF THE BALL IN 1858 
22 



Grand Ball 



Given by the Jacksou Fire Department, July 4th, 1858 

Programme of Dances 

Plain Quadrille Plain Quadrille 

Waltz Waltz 

Plain Quadrille Sicilian Circle 

Mazurka Gallop 

Lancers French Four 

Polka Polka 

Plain Quadrille Quadrille (Old Dan Tucker) 

Schottische Waltz 

Varsovienne Virginia Reel 

Quadrille (Basket) Schottische 

Danish Polka Quadrille (Pop Goes 
Supper March the Weasel) 

Waltz 

Tickets, Inchidiug Supper, $5.00 Ladies Free 

"We won't go home 'till morning; 
We'll dance 'till the break o' day." 



While mining on the Mokelnmne River, my partner 
and myself were attacked by a o'rizzly bear. I fired 
six shots from my pistol into the Grizzly's body, which 
had only the effect of angering him. He chased me 
down the river until I took advantage of the trunk 
of a pine tree by getting behind it, and then drawing 
my sheath knife I awaited his coming. He rose upon 
his hind legs and struck at me with one of his forepaws. 
I caught it on the point of my knife and ripped it open. 
This caused him to turn and run for the brush. 

The worst tussle I ever had w^ith an animal was with 
a mastiff, kept by a German merchant in Jackson. It 
was the largest dog in the county, if not in the State. 
I entered the merchant's back 3^ard one afternoon 
to deliver a load of wood, when the mastiff made 
an angry rush at me. As he jumped at my throat, I 

23 



grasped him by both ears and bore him down to the 
ground. I then spit in his eye, kicked all the wind 
out from between his ribs and when he howled from 
fear, with a final kick, I let him loose and he slunk 
to his kennel with his tail between his legs. About 
fifty people had gathered to see the battle, not one of 
whom offered me any assistance, but, when it was over, 
nearly all had advice to give as to how to kill the 
brute. I said no, he is a whipped cur and that is 
sufficient. 

An elderly man, whom we called the Major, and 
who lived on the creek a short distance from me, one 
afternoon came over to my claim to have a chat. 
Knowing he had been on Jackson Creek sometime be- 
fore I came there, to satisfy my curiosity, I asked him: 
"Major, how long have you been here?'' "Do you 
see the Butte over yonder?" asked he, pointing to the 
peak, popularly called by the people of Jackson, "Butte 
Mountain." "Yes," I replied. "Well," said the 
Major, spitting at a piece of quartz about ten feet 
away: "When I came here the Butte was nothing 
but a hole in the ground." An amusing part of this 
statement is, on account of my being young in years 
and a foreigner I, for some time afterward, believed 
what he said. 

Another big yarn spinner, and one who could spit 
further and straighter than the Major, that I met in 
Jackson, was a man named Gibbons, w^ho mined on the 
North Fork near where the Kennedy Mill is now lo- 
cated. He, with a partner, worked during the summer 
of '54 getting out pay dirt to wash when the Autumn 
rains came. He had a number of large chispas and 
by exhibiting different ones at various times and to 
different parties, created an impression he was fre- 
quently finding nuggets an ounce or more in weight. 
He so impressed a widow, with whom he and his part- 

24 



ner boarded, that she married his partner and expected 
to share the fortune the final clean up would yield. 
Whether,^ because he had matrimonial intentions him- 
self and was disappointed, or from some other cause, 
he, late in the summer, sold out and departed for 
Sacramento. He tipped off to a few he was going to 
the mint to dispose of the bag of nuggets he had gath- 
ered and intended to return, but he never did. On 
the stage he made such a display of his nuggets and 
gave such a vivid description of how he could thrust 
his hand, at will, into the pile of pay dirt he and his 
partner had dug and draw out a nugget that some of 
the passengers took passage back to Jackson on the 
next stage to locate claims. He remained in Sacra- 
mento two days, during which time his exhibition of 
nuggets and tales of fabulous richness, caused a couple 
of hundred greedy gold seekers to start for Jackson, 
where their arrival astonished the residents of the 
town who had no information of the rich strike and 
that the excitement of Negro Hill was about to be 
repeated. As rumor, with its swift wings, made its 
flight from Sacramento into El Dorado, Placer and 
Nevada Counties, and in exaggerated terms, whispered 
the news of the strike, several hundred rainbow chas- 
ers, afoot, on horseback and with other means of con- 
veyance, for the next ten days, began to pour into 
Jackson, eager to get a portion of the great treasure 
to be uncovered there. Either in derision or disgust, 
the disappointed crowd christened the scene of Gib- 
bons' labors, ''Humbug Hill," and those who had the 
means soon departed wiser but sadder men, while those 
who came with a shoestring and used it, had to stay 
and seek other means of existence. The hotelkeepers 
and the storekeepers were unprepared for the army. 
Everything eatable was eaten up. Lodgings were in- 
adequate for the crowd and they slept on the side- 
walks, in the stables and many laid down to rest on 

25 




THE JACKSON STAGE THE DAY AFTER GIBBONS ARRIVED 
IN SACRAMENTO 



26 



the hillsides. As the latch string on my cabin door 
always hung on the outside and there Avas an ample 
supply of food inside to fill all empty stomachs that 
applied, I soon had as many boarders as a county 
hospital and they paid me about as much as the den- 
izens of a poor farm would. Among the number was 
a man named Davis who was as regular in his eating 
as I was and with as healthy an appetite. While he 
probably ate more than any other of my boarders, he 
paid less. He stayed over three weeks and then 
concluding to hike out to new diggings, insisted, as he 
could not pay in gold, on giving me his note for $50, 
which he would pa}^ as soon as he made his expected 
strike. I held his note several years without hearing 
from him and as he had handed it to me folded up, I had 
not read it's contents. One day I did so and found it 
read: "One day, after death, I promise to pay, etc." 
As 1 will never meet Davis here again and don't expect 
to see him in the next world, I have cancelled the 
debt. 

Now Gibbons, in his romancing, Avas only a few 
thousand feet, in a downward direction, from the truth. 
Had he said there was enormous riches a couple of 
thousand feet below instead of on the surface, he 
would have been truthful, for on the slope of ''Hum- 
bug Hill" is the shaft and mill of the great Kennedy 
mine. Kennedy, I believe, and one or two of his 
partners, came to Jackson with this '54 rush and 
remained to prospect and mine in that vicinity. Ken- 
edy and Henning located the Kennedy mine in Feb- 
ruary, 1857. They sold four-sixths at $1000 a sixth, 
which made the value of the mine $6000 with six part- 
ners. They worked it a few years and finally sold out 
for the same amount to Jim Flemming and three other 
Irishmen, who, with a one-horse whim worked the 
mine until they struck a quartz horse several hundred 
feet below the surface and went broke. 



27 




28 



''Humbug Hill" was not entirely barren of nug- 
gets, for two miners named Gilbert and Gleason, in 
February, 1859, cleaned up in one week 12 pounds of 
gold from their claim on the hill, and a Frenchman, 
named Charron, in May, '59, paid $18,000 for a 
half interest in a placer claim on the Hill and took 
out three pounds of gold next day. 

In 1855 some men were employed to sink a well 
in the rear of Kurczyn's store on the west side of 
Main Street in Jackson. One day they struck a seam 
of gold-bearing quartz, which caused some excitement, 
but as no one in the town was familiar with quartz 
veins and a supply of water was considered more im- 
portant, interest in it soon subsided. One day I stood 
on Meek's Hill in South Jackson, and looking at the 
the Kennedy Mine, I remembered the quartz vein in 
Kurczyn's well and it struck me the extension of the 
the Kennedy vein must pass under a portion of the 
town of Jackson, I made an eyesight survey and the 
result was the location by me of the Good Hope Mine, 
about midway between Meek's Hill and the mouth of 
the South Fork of Jackson Creek. I formed a com- 
pany with three other men and began operations. We 
were offered $25,000 for the mine on a thirty-day op- 
tion in 1871, and it would probably have been sold to 
a company of Chicago capitalists, but the big fire of 
that year swept them out of existence as capitalists 
and the deal fell through. I have succeeded in sinking 
a shaft on the mine to a depth of 140 feet and it has 
cost me many thousands of dollars since. I located it 
in July, 1865. I still have faith and hope in the 
mine. I believe if it was sunk to a proper depth, 
it would prove to be as rich as any mine ever de- 
veloped in Amador County and bring prosperity to 
thousands now unborn. 

I stopped placer mining late in the '50s and took 
up a ranch and have been, ever since, endeavoring to 

29 




30 



earn an honest living and prevent many dishonest 
persons cheating me out of my mining and other prop- 
ert}^ AVhile my mother impressed upon me, before I 
left her, the precepts of always paying my just debts ; 
of telling the truth ; of avoiding gossip ; of never in- 
dulging in intoxicating drink or tobacco ; of keeping 
my word and of being kind to my fellow-men and all 
dumb animals, she never warned me against getting 
into a lawsuit and this has been the bane of my exis- 
tence. I roughly estimate my experience with the 
Code of Civil Procedure has cost me $14,000. I have 
never begun a law^suit without believing I was right. I 
never lost a lawsuit without knowing I was right and 
d — d be he who says otherwise. 

I have always been willing to assist in any way 
I could to add to the enjoyment of my fellow-men. 
At the big Pioneers' picnic held near Jacteon during 
the '80s I was selected, on account of my known ability 
in that line, to cook the pork and beans for the crowd, 
as that dish was to be the feature of the barbecue. I 
had two assistants and w^e cooked four pots, each hold- 
ing from eighty to one hundred pounds. I also cooked 
the hams that were to be served cold and sliced. I 
used a pitchfork to handle the hams and a shovel 
to serve the beans in large mining pans. Everybody 
ate them with spoons and didn't seem to know when 
they had had enough. My favorite dish is pork and 
beans with young parsnips. 

In cooking pork and beans, I first wash and care- 
fully pick the beans over to remove those having a 
blemish. I then cover them with boiling water and let 
stand until cool and then put into a pot and cover 
with clean water. In a separate pot I cook the pork 
or bacon until it is tender. Then I put the pork and 
beans together and cook until done. I, m^^self, prefer 
some seasoning with a small piece of garlic, some mus- 
tard, parsley, pepper and young parsnips. 

31 




32 



At the head of the table, on the right, is Charley 
Peters; at the end on the left is his son, daughter-in- 
law and g"randchild; seated in the center, wearing his 
coat, is Col. Wm. P. Peek, a pioneer of Calaveras 
County and now a resident of Jackson. He is 87 
years of age and as hale and hearty as JMr. Peters. 
Raising a tin cup in his hand, stands Senator A. Cam- 
minetti getting ready to make a speech. The others 
are Amador pioneers who have passed on. 

I was married in Jackson in September, 1865, to 
Miss Lydia Parkinson. My wife died when my son, 
Charles, was born in September, 1866. i\Iy son married 
Miss Ella ]\rcGarr. He died in March, 1909, and his 
wife passed away in July, 1911. I have two grand- 
children living: Raymond C. Peters is now 14 years 
of age and Lena Mary Peters is 12. It is my desire 
to leave these grandchildren something more than 
my name, and, if I could sink the Good Hope a 
thousand feet deeper it would be accomplished. 

I am five feet six inches in height and weigh 
195 pounds. I have enjoyed perfect health for many 
years and attribute it to not only inheriting a strong 
constitution but to my correct habits of living. I eat 
my food cold. For breakfast I beat up four eggs 
which I mix with a quart of milk; for flavoring pur- 
poses onty, I add a tablespoonful of ''Old Crow" 
whiskey. Then I add a supply of bread crumbs. I 
milk my own cow and my chickens lay my eggs. I 
usually have pork and beans for supper and only par- 
take of two meals a day. 

My favorite beverage is Holland gin, but I have to 
confine myself to only indulging in it when I am 
treated and the treating habit seems to be going out of 
fashion with the yoimger generation. I am one of the 
best pedro pla^-ers in the State but there are only a 
fev\' of us left. 



I have never been active in politics. I was a strong 
supporter of Abraham Lincoln and General Grant, since 
which time I have only taken an interest in Senator 
Caminetti's political aspirations. And now, that I have 
passed my 90th birthday, I feel confident I can out- 
fight, run, jump and tango any man of my age in 
California, and if I was 70 years younger I would not 
hesitate to aspire to be the "White Hope" of the 
American people. I challenge any pioneer of my age 
to cook a pot of pork and beans and make a pot of 
coffee equal to my own. If he can beat me, I will 
eat what he cooks. And after a residence of 66 years 
in our beautiful State I can truthfully say: 

I love you California; You Sunny Land of Bliss; 

I love your Mountains and your Peaks, 

Your Rivers and your Creeks; 

I love your Hills and your Vales, 

And your Poppy-covered Dales; 

I love your Mines and your Vines, 

Your sturdy Oaks and stately Pines; 

I love you California and your Tulips I will kiss. 

Yours truly. 



O^aJ^y-f^^^ 



34 



The Good Luck Era 

The Placer Alining Days 
of the '50s 



Contents 

Chapter. Page. 

I. Introduction 39 

II. Good Luck ! What is it ? 41 

III. The First Nugget 43 

IV. The Father of Placer Mining in C^ali- 

fornia 53 

V. How Placer Mining Was Spread 55 

VI. The Halcyon Days of '48 60 

VII. How the Placers Were Worked 64 

VIII. Freak Ideas of Placer Mining 69 

IX. How it Feels to Find Gold the First 

Time 71 

X. Some of the World's Big Nuggets 72 

XI. Some of California's Big Nuggets 76 

XII. Freak Shapes of Nuggets 92 

XIII. A Few Smaller Nuggets and Big Pay. 94 

XIV. Good Luck in Quartz Boulders 103 

XV. Good Luck in Decomposed Quartz 

Seams 112 

XVI. Good Luck in Quartz Veins 123 

XVII. Good Luck for Mexicans 125 

XVIII. Good Luck for Frenchmen 133 

XIX. Good Luck for Jews 137 

XX. Good Luck for Chinamen 141 

XXI. Good Luck for An American 147 

XXII. Luck in Mining" Excitements 153 

XXIII. Good Luck of Game LIunters 163 

XXIV. Good Luck of Newcomers 169 

XXV. Good Luck in Towns 176 

XXVL ''Greenhorns" vs. ''Smart Alecks".... 182 

XXVII. Just Luck 185 

XXVIII. Luck in Buried Gold 187 

XXIX. A Big Poker Game 197 

XXX. Incidents of Good, Bad and Indifferent 

Luck 199 



Illustrations 



Page. 

1. James Wilson Marshall 42 

2. Sutter's Mill 44 

3. The First Nugget 46 

4. Marshall Monument 50 

5. Hon. Eugene Aram 52 

6. Sutter's Fort in 1848 58 

7. General John A. Sutter 61 

8. Charley Peters Panning 63 

9. Charley Peters Working a Rocker 65 

10. Charley Peters Working a Long Tom 66 

11. The First Hydraulic Mine 68 

12. Stockton in 1850 84 

13. Struck a Seam 117 

14. ''Old Scotty" Out of Luck 118 

15. Weaverville in the '50s 120 

16. Allison Ranch Quartz Mill in the '50s 122 

17. Grass Valley in the '50s 124 

18. Mexicans Mining 126 

19. A Mexican Arastre 128 

20. Los Angeles in 1850 130 

21. Mokelumne Hill, California, in 1856 136 

22. A Jew Peddler in the '50s 138 

23. Chinese Mining 142 

24. Auburn in the '50s 146 

25. Marysville in the '50s 152 

26. Placerville in the '50s 158 

27. On the Washoe Trail 160 

28. Morning Battle at Strawberry Over the "Lost 

Socks" Claim 164 

29. Downieville in the '50s 166 

30. Sonora in the '50s 178 

31. Old Jeremiah 207 

32. "I Remember" 217 

33. Nevada City in the '50s 226 

34. Yreka in the '50s 228 



Introduction 



The period of time from 1848, when Marshall dis- 
covered the first historical nugget, until the '60s, was, 
in California the placer mining era. 

Nearly every man who came to California in the 
'50s did so with the purpose of hunting for gold and 
the State had then, literally speaking, a population 
of gold hunters. 

The search for the precious metal was in the 
gulches, ravines, creeks and rivers; on the tops and 
sides of hills ; beneath the rocks and under the roots 
of trees, wherever a color could be found and the 
finding of nuggets from two, four to even ten pounds 
in weight was almost as numerous as the miners them- 
selves. 

Unless a nugget of unusual size, shape and weight 
was unearthed its exhibition, as a ''find," would occa- 
sion nothing more than a casual remark, and even 
the finding of one worth a few thousand dollars in 
value would hardly cause a thrill of excitement. 

Nearly every man who mined carried as a pocket 
piece or wore as a pin fastened on his shirt front a 
nugget that was a memento of a lucky "find." 

The "buck" passing from player to player in a 
poker game to designate the turn to "ante" was often 
a chispa worth, in value, more than stakes upon the 
table. Every jeweler's store displayed in its show 
window and show cases, quartz boulders, yellow veined 
with gold, often containing a fortune, and surrounded 
with a flock of nuggets — it was a sight for the greedy 
eyes of avarice to feast upon with avidity. 



Undoubtedly, every man who delved with pick and 
shovel; who panned and sluiced in these placer mining 
days had some interesting incident stored in his 
memory when good luck camped upon his trail, but 
very few of them have ever been published. IMany 
of these ''finds" have had a preponderating influence, 
not only on the individuals who made them, but upon 
whole communities as well; sometimes, changing the 
drift of a human tide to a moving current of gold- 
seeking endeavor and some have exerted an influence 
upon future generations that has been felt in the 
destiny of nations. They are, therefore, of unusual 
interest to any one who has a desire to study the effect 
of suddenly acquired wealth upon human nature. 

It is a long way from the placer, the pick and the 
pan to the mine, the mill and the cyanide plant; from 
the long tom to the dredger — not so much in length 
of time as in knowledge. 

The nomadic prospector has given place to the pro- 
fessional mining engineer; the good luck gathering 
of the nuggets strewn in the placers by the forces of 
nature has been supplanted by the systematic extrac- 
tion of gold from the treasure vaults of the quartz 
ledges by capital and metallurgical science ; but there 
will alwaj^s be an interest felt and an entertainment 
enjoj^ed in the good luck incidents of the placer min- 
ing days. While these days are gone forever and the 
men who made them what they were are passing away, 
their influence for good or evil will remain for many 
a decade to come. Had the placer mining days never 
existed the others would not have come and to show 
how they came into existence and benefited or injured 
those participating in their stirring events, the pages 
of this book will endeavor to explain. 

40 



Good Luck! What is It ? 



MANY of the Good Luck stories of the placer min- 
ing era read like tales from the "Arabian 
Nights." Luck was a word to conjure with 
then. In no other pursuit, except actual gambling, 
was the element of chance a more potent factor. 
In placer gold mining it was the individual, himself, 
who had to woo fortune. With gold hunting and 
gambling the predominating occupations of a majority 
of the population to the indefinite term of Luck was a 
change in a man's financial condition almost unani- 
mously attributed. 

Fortuna, the Goddess of Luck, was never a re- 
specter of persons. Here, as in myth, she showed that 
neither sex, race, religion nor previous condition 
influences her bestowal of favors or frowns. Neither 
science nor sorcery, invention nor inspiration had any- 
thing to do with the turn of luck during the placer 
mining days. Poverty was often changed to affluence 
and destitution to prosperity by the blow of a pick. 
It was this great uncertainty that gave to placer min- 
ing a charm words are inadequate to express. Every 
placer miner worked with a hope and expectation of 
washing into sight a lump of gold or a yield of nug- 
gets that would make for him the longed-for stake. 
With hope burning brightly, he often delved where 
prospects were poor and results nil, but sustained with 
the possibility that the next strike of the pick or the 
washing of the next pan of dirt would be the har- 
binger of a fortune, he cheerfully toiled on. It is 
then not surprising that: "How's your luck?" became 
a common form of salutation and took the place of 
"Good morning" and other popular phrases of salu- 




JAMES WILSON MARSHALL. 



This picture of James Wilson Marshall was given to the writer in 
1870, by Mr. Marshall personally. He was then 60 years old. He 
was born in Huntington Co., New Jersey, October 8, 1810. He came 
to California in 1844, and died at Coloma, El Dorado Co., California, 
August 10, 1885, being nearly 75 years old. An interesting incident 
is the fact that now, in 1915, the surnames of the President and 
Vice-President of the United States comprise a part of Mr. 
Marshall's name. 



42 



tation. It was so with Hebrew and Heathen ; with 
IMethodist and Llormon ; with Vermonter and Virgin- 
ian; with a Mongolian John and a Mexican Don; with 
the Banker and the Bum in those days of uncertain 
events and Fortuna's fickle ways. 

With the motley horde of gold seekers, whether 
white or black, yellow or mixed, Luck was a factor 
co-existent with life itself. Good Luck has been aptly 
defined as being in the right place at the right time and 
the sequence of events in the Placer Mining Era of 
the '50s gave rise to the belief that it depended as 
much on luck as on personal endeavor to succeed. 

The aphorism: "Gold is found where you find it" 
came from this prevailing idea and it is in keeping with 
the spirit of those times that we publish these facts 
and incidents herein printed as ''Good Luck" stories. 

THE FIRST NUGGET 

It was a small chispa that James W. Marshall 
found. It was worth, he says, about fifty cents. 
Though small in value, what an immense influence 
upon the destiny of millions of the human race its 
accidental finding has wrought ! 

It was an unlucky find for both Marshall and 
General John A. Sutter, the two men, who, on ac- 
count of being adjacent should have profited most. 
Neither was capable of taking advantage of the rapid 
changes the wild rush of gold seekers brought about 
and ill-luck seems to have followed them in the train 
of events Marshall's famous chispa produced. Had 
it never been found by him, both he and General 
Sutter would have, undoubtedly, plodded on in their 
peaceful wa^^s, contented to pursue their tranquil vo- 
cations from sunrise to sunset, day after day, their 
names unknown to fame and unsung by posterity. 

43 




44 



Marshall's story has often been published but it 
must be told again in these pages as it is the one 
great act in nugget finding that has changed the 
destiny of nations. 

Without the gold that has flowed into the treasuries 
of the Avorlcl from the sources of supply this discov- 
ery has opened up, the power of the great nations on 
the earth, their advancement and condition would be 
far different from what it is today. 

Marshall's story is as follows: 

''Toward the end of August, 1847, General Sutter 
and I formed a co-partnership to build and run a 
sawmill upon a site selected by myself, now known 
as Coloma. We employed P. L. Weimar and family 
to remove from the fort to the millsite to labor and 
cook for us. 

The first work done was the building of a double 
log cabin about half a mile from the millsite. 

We commenced building the mill about Christmas. 
Some of the mill hands wanted a cabin near the mill. 
This was built and I went to the fort to superintend 
the construction of the mill-irons, leaving orders to cut 
a narrow ditch where the race was to be made. Upon 
my return in January, 1848, I found the ditch cut 
as directed and those who were working on the same 
were doing so at a great disadvantage, expending their 
labor upon the head of the race instead of the tail end. 
I immediately changed the course of things, and upon 
the 19th day of January, 1848, discovered the gold 
near the lower end of the race about two hundred 
yards below the mill. William Scott was the second 
man to see the metal. He w^as at work at a carpenter 
bench near the mill. I showed the gold to him. Alex- 
ander Stephens, James Brown, Henry Bigier and 
William Johnston were likewise working in front of 
the mill framing the upper story. They were called 
up next and saw the piece of metal. P. L. Weimar 

45 



and Charles Bennett were at the double log cabin a 
half mile distant. In the meantime, we put in some 
wheat and peas, nearly five acres, across the river. 
In February Captain Sutter came to the mill for the 
first time. Then we consummated a treaty with the 
Indians which had been previously negotiated. The 
tenor of this was that we were to pay them $200 
3^early in goods at Yerba Buena prices for the joint 
possession and occupation of the land with them. 
The}^ agreed not to kill our stock nor burn the grass 
within the limits of our treaty. 

At the time Captain Sutter, myself and Isaac Hum- 
phre}^ entered into a co-partnership to dig gold." 

Mrs. Wimmer's Account 
Next to Marshall, P. L. Wimmer — his name is 
spelled Weimar and Wimmer in the accounts — his wife 
and son are most prominently connected with the dis- 
covery of gold. Mr. AVimmer's place at Sutter's mill 
seems to have been that of assistant to his wife and as 
he only corroborates what she relates in her statement 
made in San Francisco in 1871, her's will be used 
instead of his. 




MRS. WIMMER S FIRST NUGGET 

The nugget given to Mrs. Wimmer by Marshall and 
tested in the boiler of soft soap was in size and shape 
like a lima bean but much thinner. It Aveighed over 
14 of an ounce and was valued at the mint at $5.12. 
Mrs. Wimmer kept it for many years finally giving 
it to a friend. 



46 



Mrs. Wimmer was the mother of a family of 
seven children. They came to California across the 
plains with fourteen other families from Missouri in 
1846. Arriving at Sutter's Fort, Wimmer enlisted in 
Fremont's command and remained with it four months. 
He was with one of the relief parties that went to the 
aid of the Donner party. The family was provided 
with living quarters by General Sutter, and when 
j\Iarshall started out with his force to build the saw- 
mill they accompanied him. Wimmer was a sort of a 
handy man around the camp and looked after the 
Indians while Mrs. Wimmer cooked and, probably, 
washed and .mended for the white men in the party. 
Her statement is as follows: 

''They had been working on the mill race, dam 
and mill about six months, when one morning along 
in the last days of December, 1847, or first week of 
January, 1848, after an absence of several days to the 
fort, Marshall took Wimmer down to see what had 
been done while he was away. The water was entirely 
shut off and as they walked along, talking about the 
Avork, just ahead of them on a little rough, muddy 
rock lay something bright like gold. They both saw 
it, but Marshall was the first to stoop and pick it up. 
As he looked at it he doubted it being gold. Our 
little son, Martin, was along with them, and Marshall 
gave it to him to bring to me. He came in a hurry 
and said 'Here, mother, here is something Marshall 
and pa found and they want you to put it into sal- 
era tus water and see if it will tarnish.' I said: 'This 
is gold and I will throw it into my lye kettle.' I had 
just tried it with a feather and if it was gold it would 
be gold when it came out. I finished off my soap that 
day and set it out to cool and it stayed there till next 
morning. At the breakfast table one of the workmen 
raised up his head from eating and said: 'I heard 
somethinf? about gold being discovered. What about 



47 



it?' Marshall told him to ask Jennie and I told him 
it was in my soap kettle. Marshall said it was there 
if it had not gone back to California. A plank was 
brought for me to lay my soap on. I cut it in chunks 
but it was not to be found. At the bottom of the 
pot was a double handful of potash which I lifted in 
my two hands and there was the gold piece as bright as 
could be. ]\Iarshall still contended it was not gold, but 
whether he was afraid his men would leave or he really 
so thought I don't know. Wimmer remarked it looked 
like gold, weighed heavy and would do to make money 
out of. The men promised not to leave the mill until 
finished. Finally, not being sure it was gold Wimmer 
urged Marshall to go to the fort and have it tested. 
One day, some time afterward, IMarshall was pack- 
ing up to go away. He had gathered a good deal 
of gold dust and had it buried under the floor. In 
overhauling his traps he said to me in the presence 
of Elisha Packwood: 'Jennie, I will give you this 
piece of gold, I always intended to have a ring made 
from it for my mother, but I will give it to you.' I 
took it and still have it in my possession." 

Now, there are two different statements regarding 
the finding of the first nugget. They would indicate 
there is more than one first nugget. Both statements 
are undoubtedly correct, but they refer to separate 
incidents, occurring, perhaps, on the same day and only 
a few hours apart. 

Wimmer and his wife would not know of the doings 
of IMarshall as stated by him unless he told them and 
he could have conversed and acted with the men, as 
they say he did, after he had consulted with them. 

Another striking feature about both statements is 
the uncertainty as to the date on which the gold was 
found. While these people knew the year, the month 
and the day of the week, because they rested on Sun- 
day, they evidently had no use for a calendar. They 

48 



kept no dates and had no concern as to the date of the 
month as each day came and went. Marshall, by re- 
membering' certain things done before and after, finally 
cornered the 19th of January and stabbed it, while 
]\Irs. Wimmer knows it was after Christmas Day, be- 
cause some bottles of brandy, sent by General Sutter 
for the workmen to celebrate Christmas with, had been 
emptied before gold was discovered- Our learned 
savants, after diligent research and historical argu- 
ment, have determined on January 24, 1848, as the 
date gold was discovered. A little matter of five days 
ought not to make any great difference to us at the 
present time, as the main thing really happened, that 
is, gold was discovered. So we will let it go at that. 

Another interesting feature in this incident is the 
activity of the ubiquitous small boy. Mrs. Wimmer 
says her son, jMartin, was present when Marshall picked 
up the first nugget and was the messenger who brought 
it to her to test in saleratus water. One of the work- 
men on the mill has stated that when General Sutter 
visited the mill in February to investigate the gold 
discovery, the men, who had been picking up pieces 
of gold in the mill race, determined to *'salt" it by 
distributing the pieces so that the General would easily 
see them and become unduly excited. They did not 
seem to treat the event seriously or as of much import- 
ance. The small boy was there and as the party pre- 
pared to go with the General to look at the mill race, 
he skipped off ahead, gathered up the pieces of gold 
distributed by the workmen and spoiled the joke. 
Then the General, in order to protect his industries 
from ruin and save what he could from what he sur- 
mised was impending disaster, exacted a promise from 
the workmen that they would keep the discovery a 
secret for six weeks, but he overlooked the small boy. 

A few days after the General's visit to the mill, 
a teamster appeared at the fort, bought a bottle of 
brandy and paid for it with a piece of gold the small 

49 




MARSHALL S MONUMENT AT COLOMA, CAL. 
50 



boy, at the mill, had given to him. From that time 
on the news spread. 

All hail to the small boy ! He is here ! he is there ! 
he is everywhere ! 

Another noticeable thing connected with this event 
is that of the fifteen or more men present, by acci- 
dent, at the time of the discovery of gold, and who 
had the opportunity the acquisition of gold is sup- 
posed to give, not one, in any other way, has left his 
''footprints on the sands of time." 

That there were a number of people who found gold 
in California before Marshall did, history has proven 
but none gave it to the world and attracted attention. 
One of the nearest approaches to a discovery that 
would have taken the luck from Marshall was that 
of Mrs. Joseph Aram. Her husl)and, Joseph Aram, 
and herself starting from New York were members of 
an immigration party in September, 1846, coming into 
California and camped at the mouth of a small creek 
that emptied into the South Fork of the Yuba river 
near where now is the boundary line between Nevada 
and Placer counties. Mrs. Aram, in scooping out with 
her hands, a small hole in the sand for an improvised 
washtub, noticed and picked up several small pieces 
of yellow metal which were examined by members of 
the party and pronounced to be gold. 

This was an eventful day to the party; not only 
did Mrs. Aram find several small nuggets of gold, but 
Mr. Aram killed a bear, another of the party a deer 
and a messenger arrived from Sutter's fort announc- 
ing the breaking out of war between the United States 
and Mexico. He urged the party to hasten to the fort 
and get protection from General Fremont's detach- 
ment. In the excitement the news caused the gold 
incident was neglected. Mr. Aram was made a cap- 
tain of a company and sent to Santa Clara Valley. He 
was afterwards placed in charge of the construction of 

51 




HON. EUGENE ARAM OF SACRAMENTO, CAL. 
52 



a fort at Cypress Point near Monterey and he was 
there in January, 1848. 

After Marshall's discovery, Mr. Aram returned to 
the old camping- ground only to find the ground occu- 
pied by miners who were making big pay. Mr. Aram 
was a member of the first Constitutional Convention in 
18-1:9, and a member of the first session of the Legis- 
lature. He died in San Jose March 30, 1898. His son, 
Eugene Aram, was born in Monterey, January 26, 
1848, a few days after the discovery of gold, and is 
said to be the first child born in California of white 
native-born American parents. He was State Senator 
from Yolo County in 1895-97 and is now a prominent 
attorney of Sacramento, California. 



THE FATHER OF PLACER MINING IN CALIFORNIA 

John S. Hittell, writing of this event has stated: 
''Marshall was a man of an active enthusiastic 
mind and he at once attached great importance to his 
discovery. His ideas, however, were vague. He knew 
nothing about gold mining. He did not know how to 
take advantage of what he found. Only an exper- 
ienced gold miner could understand the importance of 
the discovery and make it of practical value to all 
the world. That gold miner was fortunately at hand. 
Plis name was Isaac Humphrey. He was living in 
San Francisco, when, in the month of February, 1848, 
Charles Bennett, one of the employes at the Coloma 
Mil], went to San Francisco to have the yellow stuff 
tested, as there was still some doubt as to its being 
gold. 

Bennett told of his errand to a friend he met in 
San Francisco and this friend introduced him to 
Humphre3^ who had mined for gold in Georgia. He 
was, therefore, competent to pass an opinion upon the 
question. Humphrej^ knew it was gold and on being 

53 



informed of the location where gold was being found 
departed for Coloma and arrived there on March 7, 
1848. He failed to induce a number of his friends to 
go with him and they considered him foolish to go. 
At Coloma he found some of the men talking about 
the gold and in a desultory way looking for pieces, but 
no one was actually engaged in mining and the work 
on the mill was proceeding in a leisurely manner. 

On ]\Iarch 8, Humphrey began prospecting with pick 
and pan and was soon satisfied the ground was rich 
in gold. He then made a rocker and commenced the 
first placer mining for gold in California. 

Others, seeing how to do it, soon followed his 
example, and as more and more abandoned their regular 
occupations and began to mine, the country was, in a 
few months, in the throes of a social and industrial 
revolution." 

Mr. Humphrey was in a few days after arriving at 
Coloma, followed in his mining operations by a French- 
man, named Jean Baptiste Ruell, Avho was popularly 
known as Baptiste. He had mined for gold in Mexico. 
He had been employed by General Sutter to cut 
timber w^ith a whipsaw and for over a year had been 
so employed on what became known as Weber Creek, 
several miles east of Coloma. His mining experience 
made him an excellent prospector and his knowledge 
was of great service in teaching the novices the prin- 
ciples of placer mining. When he had viewed the 
diggings at Coloma, he declared there were richer 
placers on the creek where he had been sawing timber, 
and he wondered why he had not made the discovery 
himself. 

Being of a religious turn of mind, he comforted 
himself with the reflection, it was the will of Providence 
that gold should not be discovered until California 
was in control of the American people. 

54 



HOW PLACER MINING WAS SPREAD 

During March, 1848, P. B. Reading, afterwards a 
prominent and wealthy citizen of northern California 
and who then owned a large rancho on the Sacramento 
River, in what is now Shasta County, visited Coloma 
to take a look. He declared from the appearance of 
the country there must be gold on his rancho and in 
a few weeks came the news of rich diggings being found 
on Clear Creek, where Reading was at work with his 
Indians mining. 

About the same time came John Bidwell to Co- 
loma to take a look. He was then living on a rancho 
on the Feather River. He went away with the belief 
that gold was in quantity on his land and soon was 
heard the news that Bidwell and his Indians were min- 
ing a rich placer on Bidwell's Bar. 

On April 26, 1848, the first authentic announce- 
ment in a San Francisco newspaper was made of the 
gold discovery. 

It stated that a man had arrived from the gold 
region near Sacramento, and had reported many rich 
discoveries being made, instancing one, where seven 
men had w^ashed out $9600 in gold in fifteen days and 
had found one large piece worth at least $6. This 
started the rush from San Francisco. By August, 1848, 
placer mining had become an important California in- 
dustry and a descriptive account of the Coloma min- 
ing district was published, which said: "There are 
now about four thousand white people, besides several 
hundred Indians, engaged in mining and from the 
fact no capital is required, they are working in com- 
panies on equal shares or alone as individuals. In 
one section of the diggings, called the 'Dry Diggings,' 
no other implement is necessary than an ordinary 
sheath knife to pick the gold from the rocl^. In 
other parts, where the gold is washed out, the machin- 
ery is very simple, being an ordinary trough, made 

55 



of plank about ten feet long, two feet wide with a 
riddle or sieve at one end, to hold the larger gravel, 
and three or four small bars across the bottom, about 
half an inch high to keep the gold from going 
out with the w^ater and dirt at the lower end. When 
this trough is set on rockers, it is given a half rotary 
motion to the water, which carries the dirt inside to 
the end. By far the largest number use nothing but 
a large tin pan or an Indian basket, into which they 
place the dirt and shake it about until the gold gets 
to the bottom and the dirt is carried over the side 
in the form of muddy water. It is necessary in some 
cases to have a crowbar, pick or shovel, but a great 
deal is taken up with large horns, shaped like spoons 
at the large end. From the fact that no ijapital is 
necessary and a fair compensation to labor is obtained 
without the influence of capital, men, who were only 
able to procure a month's provisions, have now thous- 
ands of dollars in gold dust at their disposal. The 
laboring class has now become the capitalists of this 
country. 

As to the richness of the mines, were we to set down 
half of the truth it would be looked upon, in other 
countries, as a Sinbad story. Many persons have col- 
lected in one day from $300 to $800 of the finest grade 
of gold and for many da3^s have been averaging $75 
to $150. 

Although this is not universal, yet, the general 
average is so well settled that when a man with his 
pan or basket does not easily gather $40 a day, he 
moves to another place to find better diggings. These 
four thousand people at work will add to the aggre- 
gate w^ealth of our territory about four thousand ounces 
or $64,000 a day." 

In 1853, five years later, the production of gold 
from California placers was officially reported at $65,- 

56 



000,000, annually, and $204,000,000 had been sent to 
the Philadelphia mint in that time. 

The Coloma district must have been a very rich 
section and how simple was the process of placer 
mining is shown by the result of two days mining in 
'48, by a fifteen-year-old boy named Davenport, who 
washed out in that short time fourteen pounds of gold 
worth about $3000. It also must have been very 
hastily and carelessly worked at that time, as there 
is a record of a mining compan^^ of six men, working 
a claim in 1855, within a few yards of the Sutter mill 
and making an ounce a day to the man. 

Samuel Brannan, a Mormon leader, appears on the 
scene at this time as the pioneer merchant of this gold 
region. He was the first man to take advantage of the 
changed condition of affairs and to make a fortune out 
of merchandising. A few years afterward, he was 
said to be in receipt of an income of $250,000 a year 
from his business and real estate investments. He died 
in 1880, a, comparatively speaking, poor man, his 
fortune made in the '50s being lost in unprofitable in- 
vestments. 

The general public knew very little about gold at 
the time of its discovery in California. Only those 
who handled it in their lines of business knew its char- 
acteristics and something more about it than its color. 
Many were fooled with stuff' that had a glitter, as the 
following item, published in The New York Evening 
Post, of January 26, 1849, shows: 

"A California Damper — We are told that Messrs. 
Savage and Hawkins, Gold Assayers at 128 William 
Street, have received a lump of gold that was supposed 
to be California gold, weighing twentj^-six ounces, Troy, 
to be assayed. It was not affected by acids, but in 
refining it got evaporated. It proved to be a piece of 
sulphurets of iron. The owner bought it in San Fran- 
cisco for $7 an ounce, giving merchandise in ex- 
change. ' ' 

57 













•KS ^ » -iii 



58 



SUTTER'S FORT 

Written hy Luciiis H. Foote in 1878 

I stood by the old Fort's crumbling wall 
On the eastern edge of the town ; 
The sun through clefts in the ruined hall, 
Flecked with its light the rafters brown. 

And, sifting with gold the oaken floor, 
Seemed to burnish the place anew; 
While out and in, through the half closed door, 
Building their nests, the swallows flew. 

Charmed by the magic spell of the place, 
The present vanished, the past returned; 
While rampart and fortress filled the space 
And yonder the Indian camp-fires burned. 

I heard the sentinel's measured tread. 
The challenge prompt, the quick reply; 
I saw on the tower above my head. 
The Mexican banner flaunt the sky. 

Around me were waifs from every Clime, 
Blown by the fickle winds of chance; 
Knights Errant, ready at any time 
For any cause to couch a lance. 

The stanch old Captain with courtly grace, 
Owner of countless leagues of land, 
Benignly governs the motley race 
Dispensing favors with open hand. 

His long horned herds on the wild oats feed 
While broAvn vaqueros with careless rein, 
Swinging reatas. at headlong speed 
Are dashing madly over the Plain. 



59 



THE HALCYON DAYS OF '48 



Mexico ceded California to the United States by 
treaty signed in May, 1848, and for the rest of the year 
there was an interregnum that gave to the Coloma 
mining region a peaceful existence as far as govern- 
mental exactness was concerned. There was a militar^^ 
authority, but no local officials to offensively officiate. 
There were no taxes to pay and consequently no tax 
collectors. Everybody was mining. The banker, the 
barber, the baker and the hundred other occupations 
that go to make up a well-organized community dis- 
appeared and all men became of one class. There 
were no saloons, gambling halls or dance houses, con- 
sequently, no barkeepers, gamblers or Cyprians. There 
were no churches, newspapers or theaters, consequently 
no ministers, editors or actors. No court houses or 
jails, consequently no crimes or criminals. Society 
was on a level. There was no 7 o'clock whistle in the 
morning. The educated college man migTit be the 
partner of an illiterate Mexican. It did not require 
an education to mine for gold. Muscle, energy and per- 
severance were the requirements. The poorest man 
in the crowd in the morning had the chance of being 
the richest when the final cleanup at night was made. 

The average of nine parasites to one producer of 
new wealth from the soil, as prevailed in settled com- 
munities, did not exist here. There was a thousand 
miners to one storekeeper and no occupations between. 

General Sutter in mournful tones, deploringly pic- 
tures in a written account, the situation at this time as 
he sat alone in his deserted fort. He says: 

CO 



''The first party of Mormons employed by me left 
for digging gold and very soon all followed and left 




GEN. JOHN A. SUTTER 



me with only the sick and lame. At this time I could 
say everybody left me from the clerk to the cook. 



61 



Great damages I had to suffer in my tannery which 
was just doing a profitable and extensive business. 
The vats were filled and a large quantity of half- 
finished leather and likewise a large quantity of raw- 
hides of my own killing were spoiled. The same thing 
occurred in every branch of business which I car- 
ried on. 

I began to harvest my wheat but even the Indians 
could not be kept; they Avere impatient to go to the 
mines." 

On May 19, 1848, General Sutter reports the first 
rush from San Francisco to the Coloma mines. They 
filled up the fort, where only an Indian boy and him- 
self remained. There were merchants, lawyers, doctors, 
sea captains, sailors and soldiers in the crowd, and the 
General sa^^s: "Some of them acted just crazy." 

General Sutter afterward essayed to mine. With 
wagons filled with supplies and about one hundred 
Indians and fifty Kanakas he went forth, finally locat- 
ing on Sutter Creek, where the nondescript crowd he 
took with him did not make their salt and he gave up 
his fitful mining effort in disgust. 

But the rush of '49 changed all these conditions and 
General Sutter probably thought with Goldsmith: 

"111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 



With the coming of the best, mingled with the worst 
products of humanity, from all parts of the world in 



62 



the mad quest for gold, a phase of civilization developed 
that had never existed before. 




CHARLEY PETERS PANNING 



The census of California in 1860 showed a popula- 
tion of 379,994. Of these there were natives of the 
United States 233,406; of China 34,935; of Ireland 



63 



33,147; of Germany 21,646; of Great Britain 17,159; 
of France 8562 ; of Italy 2805 ; of South America 2250. 
Of this number 82,573 gave their occupation as mining. 
Considering that a number equal to those in the State 
in 1860, arrived and then returned to the homes from 
whence they came, with fortunes or misfortunes, during 
the placer mining era ; that thousands dispersed, follow- 
ing mining excitements, into the neighboring territories ; 
that the mortality rate was high through violence, acci- 
dents, intemperance, exposure and epidemics, it is very 
probable 1,000,000 people came to California between 
the years of 1849 and 1861. 

HOW THE PLACERS WERE WORKED 

Placer mining is followed in half a dozen different 
ways, none requiring investment of much capital but 
all depending upon muscular energy to make a success. 
The pick and pan, using the hands to gather the pay 
dirt and washing in a pool of water Avith a half rotary 
motion of the pan, is the simplest. 

Next comes the rocker. This machine has some re- 
semblance to a child's cradle, with similar rockers, and 
is rocked by means of a handle fastened to the cradle 
box. The cradle box consists of a wooden trough about 
twenty inches wide, forty inches long with sides about 
four inches high. The lower end is left open and on 
the upper end sets a hopper or box, twenty inches 
square with sides four inches high and with a sheet- 
iron bottom pierced with round holes a half inch in 
diameter. When a sheet of iron or zinc could not be 
obtained a sieve of Avillow limbs was used. Under the 
hopper is an apron of canvas which slopes down from 
the lower end of the hopper to the upper end of the 
cradle box. A wooden riffle bar an inch high is nailed 
across the bottom of the cradle box about the middle 
and another at its lower end. Under the cradle box is 
fastened the rockers and near the middle is placed the 

64 



upright handle by which the motion is imparted from 
the clasped hand and arm. 

When pay dirt and water were adjacent, two men 
were sufficient to operate a rocker steadily. Seated on 




CHARLEY PETERS WORKING A ROCKER 

a block of wood or a stone, the man operating, rocked 
with one hand and with a long handled dipper, he 
dipped water from a pool and poured it on the dirt in 
the box with the other. His partner could keep the 
hopper supplied by carrying the dirt in a bucket or 
Indian basket from the bank being mined. "When the 
fine particles of dirt had been washed away through 

65 



the holes in the hopper, the rocks were cast out and the 
hopper filled again with dirt to be washed. The gold 
was caught on the canvas apron and by the riffle bars, 
while the water washed it free of the fine sand that 
had passed through the holes of the hopper. 

In the dry diggings, called such, because water was 
not available, a method of separating gold from the 
earth was introduced by the Mexicans from Sonora. 
The pay dirt w^as dug and dried in the sun, then pulver- 
ized by pounding it into a fine dirt. With a batea, or a 
liowl-shaped Indian basket, filled with this dust, held in 
l^oth hands, it was tossed skillfully in the air, allowing 
the wind to blow away the dust and catching the heavy 
particles of gold in the basket, repeating the process 
until there was little left but the gold. 

The "Long Tom" was a single sluice with a sieve 
made of sheet iron, with numerous holes punched in it 
and a box underneath with riffle bars across it to hold 
the gold. It was really an enlarged rocker box without 
the rockers. The pay dirt was shovelled in at the 
upper end and a rapid current of water washed the 
earth away, the gold falling into the box below. 

In the gulches, creeks and rivers where there was 
not much fall and an ample flow of water, sluice boxes 
became the vogue. 

A string of sluice boxes was laid of sufficient length 
to keep every miner in the employ of the claim working. 
A sluice box Avas made of three planks, usually twelve 
feet long and a foot or more wide. Each sluice fitted 
into the upper end of the one below and in the lower 
end of each, riffle bars were placed to hold the gold. 
Sometimes a piece of blanket or a supply of quicksilver 
was used to catch the fine particles. The sluice line, 
as the dirt was shovelled away, was placed on either 
wooden trestles or stood on pinnacles of earth left stand- 
ing to support it. As the pay dirt was shovelled into 
the sluice boxes, a sluice head of water washed the fine 

67 



particles away. A miner with a pitch fork, at intervals, 
straddled the sluice line and travelled up and down it, 
removing the rocks too large to be carried away by the 
flow of water in the sluices. 

Ground sluicing, where a head of water with suffi- 
cient fall was obtainable, was an effective adjunct to all 




THE FIRST HYDRAULIC MINE 

forms of placer mining, by rapidly removing large 
quantities of dirt and letting the gold, separated from 
it, drop upon the uneven surface of the bed rock. 

68 



Hydraulic mining', evolved from an idea of a 
Frenchman named Chabot at Nevada City in 1852, and 
the introduction of arastres and quartz mills, was the 
beginning- of capitalization to handle the mining- indus- 
try, and they rapidly took the place of these simple aids 
to muscle in obtaining gold. 

FREAK IDEAS OF PLACER MINING 

While the tools and other requirements for placer 
mining are simple and inexpensive, few people had any 
knowledge of them at the time the discovery of gold in 
California became known to the world, and Yankee 
ingenuity, in the Eastern States, at once, solved a 
number of imaginary difficulties. 

Inventors who had never seen a river bar, a placer 
bank or a nugget of gold in a bed rock crevice, designed, 
built and shipped in vessels around the Horn or con- 
veyed on Avagons across the plains, some of the most 
extraordinary arrangements of machinery with which 
to mine for gold the world had ever seen. While these 
useless machines lay rotting on the beach and other 
vacant places, where they were dumped, after arrival 
in California and were found to be worthless for gold 
mining, they were the cause of many a droll remark. 
Yet, they represented many a financial tragedy and 
many a bitter disappointment to their inventors and 
investors. 

Some of these inventors appeared to have an idea, 
probably derived from hearing grains of gold spoken 
of, that gold was found in shape like grains of wheat 
and should be separated from the earth as w^heat is 
separated from chaff. Machines for accomplishing this 
object were made of wood, combined with all kinds of 
base metals, operated by cranks, treadles and other 
means of imparting motion, and one provided an arm 
chair for the operator to sit in comfort while working. 
One machine that came around the Horn was invented 



69 



and built in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The inventor 
brought two negroes with him to operate it. It was, 
in shape, like a huge fanning mill with sieves arranged 
for sorting the gold; the small pieces were to drop into 
bottles and the large pieces into barrels attached at 
opportune places to the machine, the theor,y being that 
the bottle could be carried and the barrels could be 
rolled, when filled, from the mine to the camp. 

Another idea centered upon an immense tub, made 
of staves, which w^as to be placed at the mouth of a 
gulch or a creek, and catch all the pay dirt washed 
down. When filled, the gold was to be separated by 
stirring the mass around, the gold falling to the bottom 
and the dirt flowing out w^ith the water from rows of 
holes arranged around the tub, to be opened when 
desired. Another inventor brought a supply of diving 
helmets and apparatus with an idea of organizing a 
company of divers, who would pick up the gold lying 
on the bottom of lakes and rivers, too deep to be 
drained or diverted. 

A newspaper reporter in San Francisco in 1851 
wrote the following: 

''We yesterday saw upon a vacant lot in this city 
a few tons of patent gold-mining machinery brought to 
California by some unfortunate inventor. It is offered 
for sale cheap. A portion of the apparatus is admirably 
adapted for the churning of butter or the extraction of 
dirt from foul linen and the balance would puzzle a 
smart engineer to say to what it could be applied." 

Possibly the following parody on "Susannah," a 
popular song in the '50s, was written in honor of these 
ardent rainbow chasers. 

"I soon shall be in 'Frisco, 
And then I'll look all round; 
And when I see the gold lumps there, 
I'll pick 'em off the ground, 
I'll scrape the mountains clean, my boys, 

70 



I'll drain the rivers dry; 

A pocketful of gold bring home, 

So brothers, don't yon cry! 

California! That's the land for me! 

I'm bonnd for San Francisco, 

With my wash bowl on my knee." 

HOW IT FEELS TO FIND GOLD THE FIRST TIME 

The ecstacy a novice feels when beginning to mine 
for gold and first nncovers the object of his search, 
must be akin to what a young California father feels 
on the birth of his first native son or daughter. . 

E. Gould Buffum, a young miner who was on Weber 
Creek in 1848 and was afterwards the editor of a San 
Fi'ancisco journal, describes his experience as follows: 

"I shall never forget the delight with which I first 
struck and worked out a crevice. It was on the second 
day after our installation in our little log cabin. The 
first day we were employed in locating ourselves and 
prospecting for the most favorable places to commence 
operations. I had slung pick, shovel and bar upon my 
.shoulder, placed my pan under my arm and then 
trudged merrily away to a ravine about a mile distant. 
With pick, shovel and bar I did my duty and soon had 
a large rock in view. Getting down into the hole I had 
dug I seated myself upon the rock and commenced 
careful search for a crevice. I finally found one that 
extended across the rock. It was filled with a hard 
bluish clay, mixed with gravel, which I took out with 
my knife. At the bottom of the crevice I saw strewn 
along its entire length, bright yellow gold in nuggets of 
the size of a grain of wheat or a bean. Eureka! Oh, 
how my heart beat ! I sat still and looked at the treasure 
some minutes before I could touch it, greedily drinking 
in the pleasure of gazing upon gold for the first time 
in my life within my grasp. I felt a sort of bravado 

71 



in allowing- it to remain there. "When my eyes had suf- 
ficiently feasted upon it I scooped it out with the point 
of my knife and an iron spoon into my pan and ran 
with it to my camp delighted. It was about two ounces 
in weight." 

SOME OF THE WORLD'S BIG NUGGETS 

GOLD ! There is magic in the word ''Gold" to a 
civilized people. History shows that the desire for it 
has brought about all the great events on record that 
have made important changes in the habitations of the 
civilized peoples on the earth. The first search for the 
precioils metal was that of the Argonauts, the famous 
Greek heroes who, according to tradition, lived before 
the Trojan War and acquired fame by an adventurous 
journey to unknown seas. In the ship Argo they sailed, 
under the command of Jason in search of the Golden 
Fleece. This was the first rush of gold hunters on 
record. They had Hercules, Theseus, Castor, Pollux 
and Orpheus in the crowd, so it was a mixture of char- 
acters, equalling in diversity, the rush to California in 
'49. The trip was noteworthy, because it was successful, 
but as to what has become of the Golden Fleece history 
is silent. 

The first mention of gold in the Bible is in the 
second chapter of Genesis, 11th and 12th verses, where 
is mentioned the land of Havilah: "where the gold 
groweth and is good." This w^as before the time of 
Noah. Next we find in Genesis xxiv, where Abraham 
has sent to Rebecca, jewelry in the form of ear rings 
and bracelets, showing that jewelry and the Jews are 
coexistent. 

The great science of chemistry owes its first develop- 
ment to the efforts of alchemists to find the secret of 
nature and make gold. The hieroglyphics of Egypt 
show that ancient power in its zenith had a revenue 

72 



equal to thirty million dollars of our money per annum 
from its gold mines. Savages have no use for gold 
other than occasional ornamentation. The aborigines of 
Brazil made fish hooks of gold because they knew 
nothing about iron and they stand as an exception to 
the general conditions as regards the use of gold by the 
American Indians. The Diggers of California gave 
gold no more consideration than they did the pebbles 
in the streams. The ancients used gold in quantity, 
at first, for ornamental purposes onl,y, but as civiliza- 
tion progressed and pockets in clothing came into use, 
the indestructible, unchanging characteristic and mobil- 
ity of gold made it of a constantly increasing value as 
compared with other metals. 

It finally displaced the use of iron as money in 
Greece, where at one time, if a man wanted to pay a 
grocery bill he had to hitch a yoke of oxen to a chariot 
and take a ton ingot of iron to make the payment of 
a small bill. 

The people of the world will stop a moment to take 
notice Avhen a lump of gold is found as large as a man 
can lift and too heavy to be easily stolen. 

The largest nugget on record in the world, previous 
to 1872, was found in Chili. It was exhibited in 
London at the World's Fair in the '50s in the Crystal 
Palace. It was found at considerable depth and carried 
to the surface on the back of a Chileno miner. It 
weighed forty-nine hundred ounces or a little over four 
hundred and eight pounds, Troy, and was valued at 
over $88,000. 

Australia had second honors, until 1872, in size, but 
has always had first place in the number and value of 
the large nuggets discovered in the world. 

The largest nugget found in the world, of which 
there is a record, was one unearthed by two miners 
named Eyer and Haultmus at Hill End, New South 
"Wales, Australia, on May 10, 1872. The finders were 

73 



in debt for the grub they were eating at the time and 
they were raised from poverty to wealth by the stroke 
of a pick. It was four feet, nine inches long; three 
feet, two inches wide, but only four inches thick. It 
was like a big gold slab. It weighed six hundred and 
forty pounds and was valued at $148,800. 

The "Sarah Sands" nugget, named in honor of the 
ship its finder came to Australia in, was found in the 
Ballarat, Victoria placers of Australia, in 1859. It 
weighed two thousand six hundred and eight^^-eight 
ounces or two hundred and twentj^-four pounds, Troy, 
although another account claims two hundred and 
thirty-three pounds for it. It was valued at $52,000. 

A nugget was found in the Ballarat district, Austra- 
lia, on June 9, 1859, that weighed two thousand two 
hundred and seventeen ounces or nearly one hundred 
and eighty-five pounds, Troy, and was named ' ' The Wel- 
come." It was found at a depth of one hundred and 
eighty feet and was valued at $44,356. It was raffled 
for $50,000 at $5 a chance and was won by a young 
boy, who worked in a barber shop. 

Another nugget with a similar history and named 
"The Welcome Stranger" was found on February 9, 
1869, in Mount Moligel district, Australia. It weighed 
one hundred and ninety pounds, Trov, and was valued 
at $45,000. It was raffled for $46,000 at $5 a chance 
and was won by a driver of a bakery wagon. 

The "Blanche Barkley" nugget was found in 
Kingowa, Victoria, Australia, in 1855. Being one of 
the first large nuggets found it had the greatest renown. 
It weighed one hundred and forty-six pounds, Troy, 
and was given a value of $34,000. It was taken to 
London, caressed by Queen Victoria and finally melted 
there. 

The "Precious" nugget was found in Berlin, Vic- 
toria, Australia, and weighed a little more than one 

74 



hundred and thirty-five pounds, Troy. It was vahied 
at $35,000. 

A nugget named ''The Leg of Mutton," on account 
of it, in shape, resembling that object, Avas found on 
January 31, 1852, in Ballarat district and weighed one 
hundred and thirty-five pounds, Tro}^, and was valued 
at $31,000. 

The ''Lady Hotham" nugget, weighed ninety-eight 
pounds and ten ounces, Troy, and w^as valued at $23,000. 
It w^as found on September 8, 1854. 

The "Viscount Canterbury" weighing ninety-two 
pounds, Troy, and the "Viscountess Canterbury" w^eigh- 
ing nearly sixty-four pounds, Tro}^ were found in the 
same district as the "Precious," and they were named 
in honor of their Lordships who w^ere conspicuous per- 
sonages at that time. Together these nuggets had a 
value of $18,000. 

In 1851, in New South AVales, Australia, on a stream 
named Louisa Creek, the first large mass of quartz and 
gold was found. Its glint had been noticed by a native 
lad before the discovery of gold, by white men, made it 
known to the boy that the yellow glitter was from a 
thing of value. It was taken out of the creek in three 
pieces. It was either so broken when being removed or 
had been so fractured when it fell into its resting place 
in the bed of the stream. It contained twelve hundred 
and seventy-two ounces or one hundred and six pounds, 
Troy, of gold, and was valued at $21,000. 

In 1858 a mass of quartz and gold was found at 
Burrondong, near Orange, in New South Wales, Aus- 
tralia, that yielded eleven hundred and eighty-two 
ounces when melted or ninety-eight and one-half pounds, 
Troy, of gold and was valued at $22,600. 

A number of other nuggets were found that were 
considered of sufficient size to be given names to dis- 
tinguish them by, among the largest of which are: 

75 



The "Kohinoor" weighing sixty-nine pounds, valued 
at $16,000 and found July 27, 1860. 

The "Kum Ton" weighing nearly sixty pounds and 
valued at $14,000. 

The '' Canadian Gully" found in Ballarat district, 
January 23, 1853, weighed eighty-four pounds and three 
ounces and was valued at $19,000. 

A large number weighing less than fifty pounds are 
on record. 

The only other large nugget found outside of Cali- 
fornia, besides those mentioned as being on record, is 
the one called "The Ural." It is in the Museum at 
St. Petersburg and belongs to the Czar of Russia. It 
was found in 1842 at Misak, Russia. It weighs eleven 
hundred and fifty-two ounces or ninety-six pounds, 
Troy. Its assayed value per ounce is not given, but 
assuming it to be $18 an ounce, its value is $20,736. 



SOME OF CALIFORNIA'S BIG NUGGETS 

No official record was ever kept of the big nuggets 
found in California during the placer mining era. 

They were not named after notables or incidents 
by their finders as was done in Australia. Hundreds 
of nuggets weighing from five to fifty pounds and 
enriching their lucky finders beyond their fondest 
dreams of wealth were unearthed during the '50s and 
have left no record behind them. They may have been 
a subject of local gossip for a transient period and 
then the recollection of them passed away Avith the 
nomadic miners who found them. 

Many were found by the Chinese, French and other 
foreign miners, who quickly hid their find away and 
went home with it to the foreign land from whence 
they came. 

Another confusing factor is the misuse of the word 
"nugget." 

76 



The word is derived from a mispronunciation of the 
word ''ingot" and means a piece of free gold. The 
word ''nugget", during the '50s, is used indiscrimin- 
ately to describe any large mass of gold and quartz, 
consequently, unless a find is folloAved to the assay 
office or the mint, its actual value is undetermined. 

It is doubtful if a real large nugget, that is a piece 
of gold free from quartz and one that will compare 
with those found in Australia, has been found in Cali- 
fornia. But, for the purpose of comparison, we will 
call a mass of gold and quartz with the metal in excess, 
a nugget ; where the metal and the quartz are about 
equal, it will be termed a lump, and when the quartz is 
in excess it will be named a boulder. When it comes 
to quartz boulders carrying a treasure in gold, Califor- 
nia holds The Blue Ribbon. 

The placer mining belt of California extends from 
the Klamath River on the north to the Kern River on 
the south. It is about four hundred miles long and 
thirty to forty miles wide. It extends aloug the western 
slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains and generally not 
within 2000 feet of the average summit altitude of' 7000 
feet. One view of its formation is that gold was thrown 
up by volcanic action through the fissures in the rock; 
another is, that the earth was rent into fissures by a 
violent internal force and quartz and gold in liquid 
form rushed up and was deposited and became solid in 
the same manner as mineral springs now leave their 
deposits in the fissures they flow upward in. The 
gold found in the Kern River section is about half 
silver while that in Butte and Sierra counties has a fine- 
ness of 990. The largest nuggets were found in Sierra, 
Tuolumne and Calaveras counties. An ounce of gold 
averages in value $17.75, and a pound, Troy, at this 
value, is worth $213. 

What few records we can find of large nuggets are 
those that have been mentioned in the local papers or 

77 



were made the subject of an item by some newspaper 
contributor; and, in many cases the record is mislead- 
ing, as well as incomplete, as regards details. 

The first nugget of attractive size that was found in 
California, was that picked up by a young soldier who 
belonged to the famous Stevenson Regiment, which hap- 
pened to be in California when gold was discovered and 
gained its renown from the circumstance. 

This soldier, in 1848, was riding along the Mokel- 
umne River at a point believed to be now in Calaveras 
County, when he dismounted from his horse to obtain a 
drink of water and stepped upon a nugget of gold 
weighing twenty-four pounds and w^orth over $5000. 
He took his find to Col. R. B. Mason, then acting 
Military Governor of California, at Monterey, for safe 
keeping and this nugget cut nearly as important a 
feature in creating the rush of '49 as did Marshall's 
^find of the first nugget. Col. E. F. Beale had been sent 
to Washington, D. C, with a few ounces of gold dust 
to report to the Administration the discovery of gold 
in California. His report received but little concern 
nor did it enthuse the people elsewhere as might have 
been expected. 

To confirm the statements, which he surmised would 
be considered exaggerated. Col. Mason sent the soldier's 
nugget to Col. Beale and w^hen he placed it on exhibi- 
tion in Washington and afterwards in New York, the 
gold fever broke out. 

A second nugget w^as found in Tuolumne County in 
1849 or '50, by a Frenchman, that weighed either 
twenty-eight or thirty-four pounds and was worth 
nearly $8000. It is said the finder went crazy over his 
good luck and could not look at. the nugget without 
going into a spasm. Fortunately, he had friends w^ho 
aided in securing for his family in France the wealth 
of his find. 



The largest nugget claimed to have been found in 
California is that which a contributor to a San Fran- 
cisco journal describes in 1890. He states that on 
August 21, 1856, James Finney, alias "Old Virginia," 
found near Downieville, Sierra County, a nugget weigh- 
ing five thousand one hundred and twenty ounces or 
nearly four hundred and twenty-seven pounds, Troy. 
It was sold to Decker and Jewett, bankers, for $87,500, 
although worth over $90,000. It was sent to the Phil- 
adelphia mint and there kept on exhibition several 
years. 

If this statement is true, Finney not only found the 
largest nugget in California, but the second largest on 
record in the world. 

It would be four hundred and twenty-six pounds 
and eight ounces in weight and worth $92,000. 

There is a Baron Munchausen pungency hovering 
oyer this story which can only be removed by verifica- 
tion. It was not heard of before 1890. Finney was a 
well known prospector and rendered first aid in uncov- 
ering the Comstock Lode in 1858. He died in the early 
'60s and in his career as a prospector, published after 
his death, there is no mention of this big nugget find- 
ing episode. Again, it is hardly possible Finney could 
squander $87,000 in two years around Downieville and 
other Sierra mining towns and not leave a red streak 
of notoriety folloAving him through the rest of his days. 
We wrote to the superintendent of the U. S. Mint at 
Philadelphia, Penn., for information and received a 
reply that he could give no information regarding the 
nugget. An item in a Grass Valley paper in 1878 
evidently mentions the finding of such a nugget, but 
says it was broken in two when taken out and that the 
finder is still prospecting for more gold. If it was 
broken in two it must have been a quartz boulder and 
as Finney died some fifteen years before this item was 
published the writer was not full.y informed. This 

79 



statement was disputed by an old settler of Downieville, 
but, as the statement made in 1890 has not been disputed 
we have gone thus far in the matter because, as we can 
neither affirm nor deny, therefore, deem it advisable 
not to omit mentioning: it in all its details. 



The next largest nug'get claimed to have been found 
is the one which a miner named John Dodge says he 
dug out of Castle Ravine, near Downieville, in 1853. 

He mined on the North Fork of the Yuba in '51, 
'52 and '53. 

He and his partners kept concealed their find, giving 
the very plausible reason that, owing to the many high- 
waymen and frequent stage robberies in that section, 
at that time, they feared the publicity their find w^ould 
receive would excite the cupidity of these knights of 
the road and cause it to be appropriated by them. 

It was not until 1858 that Dodge made a statement 
to a friend detailing the incident, and if his assertions 
are true, the nugget weighed two hundred and twenty- 
seven pounds and was worth about $49,000. His story 
is a good one, anyway, and is as follows : 

''I worked in the summer of 1852 on the Middle 
Yuba. There I heard of a rich claim on Castle Ravine, 
one mile above Downieville. Bill Haskins, myself and 
a Dutchman went quickty to work there and in the 
summer of '53 we occupied an old cabin that had been 
deserted and we began working an abandoned claim. 
We stripped the claim in a different direction from that 
which it had been worked and came across the lead, 
containing coarse gold, that I had heard about and w^e 
made for two weeks, from one to three ounces a man, 
per day. As the ground was getting deeper and heavier 
to strip, I started a small drift to see how wide the 
lead was before we went further ahead. 

It was on a Saturday about noon. The ground con- 
tinued to pay and we were down in a soft slate crevice, 

80 



when I struck into a bright himp of gold that seemed 
to run into the solid gravel. I tried to pry it out but 
it was too firmly imbedded in the gravel. Then 1 
worked carefully around it and it appeared to grow 
larger as I dug the gravel away. We placed the Dutch- 
man on the lookout to see that no one surprised us and, 
I can say, we were excited. After some time I got it 
loose and by hard lifting got it out and there it lay, 
almost pure gold in the shape almost of a large heart. 
It fitted exactly in the bottom of the crevice. Some 
quartz attached to it was crystallized, but, would not 
exceed five pounds in weight. We got it into the cabin 
as quick as possible and put it into a sack and con- 
cealed it under a bunk, intending to examine it more 
thoroughly at night. We stayed away from Downieville 
that night and also on Sunday. We brought the nugget 
out at night to feast our eyes upon it and guessed at 
its weight. We all thought it would weigh over two 
hundred pounds. We concluded not to take it to town 
to weigh it, but divide it in some way there, for if it 
were known there would be intense excitement. We 
had gold scales, but they would weigh only up to one 
and one-half pounds. After some time spent in consul- 
tation Haskins suggested a rough pair of original scales. 
We piled on rock and iron weighed b}^ the gold scales 
until we got a balance with the nugget. It balanced at 
two hundred and thirty-one pounds gold weight. We 
burnt the quartz and thoroughly picked it out with the 
point of a sheath knife. The nugget then balanced at 
two hundred and twenty-seven pounds, and it looked 
more beautiful than ever. If we had taken it to Lang- 
ton's express office, in Downieville, there would have 
been the wildest excitement, which we did not want. 
On Monday we cleaned up the remainder of the crevice 
and it paid big, but to us now it seemed very small 
in comparison. 

81 



Now each man had enough. AA^e had at least $50,000 
to divide which was enongh to make us all comfortably 
rich. No doubt we could have made more money exhib- 
iting the nugget but we would have run a great risk 
of losing it. We finally came to the conclusion to 
cut it up into three parts, roll each man's share in 
his own blankets and start for the Atlantic States on 
the next Panama steamship. 

I went to town on Monday, got a sharp cold chisel 
to cut and divide our prize in equal parts. 

It took us all night to do it. It seemed like vandal- 
ism to destroy the grand precious specimen of Nature's 
work. 

At the first blow on the chisel it sank deep into the 
yellow metal, it was so soft and yielding. By morning 
we had made our dividend. We then caved down the 
bank near the mouth of the drift I had run, took a 
brief sleep, cooked our breakfast, rolled up our blankets 
and departed. 

After passing Goodyear Hill and Nigger Tent, the 
rendezvous of the road agents, we breathed easier and 
arrived in San Francisco in time to catch the Panama 
steamer for New York where we landed our treasure 
safely. I have always since then, regretted the way 
we cut up the grand nugget." 

As John Dodge was working as a teamster in Aus- 
tralia in 1858, it must have been in his case, as with 
many others, '' Riches have Wings." 



The next largest nugget found, and probably the 
largest that has been found in California, is what is 
known as the Calaveras nugget. 

It was found in November, 1854. Our historians 
and other w^riters have written various statements 
regarding its weight and value. One places it at 
twenty-three hundred and forty ounces, or one hundred 
and ninety-five pounds and a value of over $40,000. 

82 



Another writer places it at one hundred and sixty 
pounds and a value of $33,000, while a third makes 
it one hundred and forty-one pounds and a value of 
$29,000. Fortunately, for historical purposes, we have 
found the statement of a Stockton journalist who saw 
the nugget weighed on November 29, 1854, and also 
Ave have been able to follow it until disposed of by its 
original owners. The nugget was found on November 
22, 1854, about dusk, fifteen feet below the surface of 
a claim at Carson Hill, Calaveras County. 

The claim was being worked by four Americans and 
one Swiss miner. The nugget was fifteen inches long, 
nearly six inches wide and of irregular thickness, 
averaging four inches. Attached to one side and one 
end were pieces of quartz, but over 80% of the lump 
was gold. It was weighed on Adams Express Com- 
pany's scales in Stockton and balanced at twenty-five 
hundred and seventy-six ounces or two hundred and 
fourteen pounds and eight ounces, Troy. It was valued 
at $17 an ounce and estimated to be worth $38,000, 
making due allowance for the quartz attached to it. 
Now this journalist after making a valuation at Troy 
weight, published its weight in pounds as one hundred 
and sixty-one, which is avoirdupois weight. 

This is probably where the difference in weight and 
valuation arises between the various writers. 

They have mixed Troy and avoirdupois ounces and 
pounds. 

Mr. Perkins, the principal owner, stated he came to 
California from Lexington, Ky. ; had mined a few 
years, but, before this streak of good luck came his 
way, had never had over $200 in gold dust in his pos- 
session at any one time. 

The nugiiet was cased and shipped by the express 
companv to New York, IMr. Perkins and another of the 
finders accompanving it on the steamer. At some point 
on their journey they met a citizen of New Orleans 

83 



Avho purchased the nugget from them for $40,000. It 
was taken to New Orleans and deposited in the Bank 
'of Louisiana in January, 1855, there to remain until 
the owner was ready to take it to Paris, to be exhibited 
at the French Exposition in 1856. 

It was carefully assayed in New Orleans and its 
real value given as $38,916. At $17 an ounce this 
would give a Troy weight of one hundred and ninety 
and three quarter pounds of gold in the nugget. 



As an instance of the capriciousness of luck the 
experience of Captain J. H. Carson in connection with 
this big nugget and other finds can be cited. Captain 
Carson was a sergeant in a New York regiment 
stationed at Monterey in 1848. He left there for 
Coloma shortly after becoming satisfied gold had been 
discovered. 

From Coloma, via Weber Creek, he, in company 
with a party of Indians and whites, departed for the 
Mokelumne River. In the party was Angel, who gave 
his name to Angel's Camp. They finally located on 
Carson Hill and Carson Creek. These two places were 
named after the Captain who first found and opened 
the rich placers existing there. 

He was taken ill with rheumatism soon after locat- 
ing the claims and was disabled for eighteen months. 
He was able to resume mining after a short time in 
'51, but was again stricken and died in Stockton in 
1853, shortly after being elected to the State Legis- 
lature from Calaveras County. He died in straitened 
circumstances, at a time, when on Carson Hill, was 
being Avorked the richest ledge of quartz that had been 
found in California. The vein was so rich the gold 
had to be chiseled loose from it and one lump chiseled 
out weighinsr one hundred and twelve pounds was 
valued at $16,000. Over $2,000,000 was taken from the 
Morsran mine in two vears' time. 



85 



Five hundred miners were working the rich placers 
of Carson Hill and gathering fortunes through Captain 
Carson's original discovery, while he was lying ill at 
Stockton. 

The finding of this big nugget and the publicity it 
received is said to have originated the first gold brick 
swindle accomplished in this country. Shortly after its 
discovery was published throughout the East, a man 
posing as a returned California miner deposited a 
nugget weighing twentj^-three hundred and nineteen 
ounces or one hundred and ninety-three pounds, Troy, 
very near the reported weight of the big nugget, in a 
New York assay office and desired an assay to be made 
of its value per ounce. 

He requested that the assay be made from small 
particles removed from places on its irregular surface 
that would not mar its appearance. This was done and 
showed it to be gold of usual California fineness. 

He then appeared to be in a dilemma. Did not know 
whether to send the nugget to London to be exhibited 
and sold or forward it to the mint at Philadelphia to 
be coined. While waiting to make up his mind he 
obtained a loan of $6000 from the assayers, leaving 
the nugget in their care as security. After a time of 
waiting the assayers became impatient and then made 
an investigation that showed the lump was made of 
lead coated with a heav}^ covering of gold leaf and a 
few small nuggets attached worth only a few hundred 
dollars. 

In April, 1855, there was published an account of 
a shooting affray in Columbia, Tuolumne County, 
between a number of miners, in which Charles Jarvis, 
who was acting the role of a peacemaker, was believed 
to be fatally wounded. Whether this affair had any- 
thing to do with bringing him to Poverty Gulch in 

86 



January, 1857, history does not say, but here he began 
the New Year, ground-sluicing a bank of earth and 
washed into view a nugget of gold weighing one hun- 
dred and thirty-two pounds and valued at $28,000. 



In the latter part of 1854 Mrs. H. IT. Smith, in 
French Ravine, Sierra County, who, in addition to at- 
tending to household duties assisted her husband a few 
hours daily in mining, washed into view a lump weigh- 
ing ninety-seven and a half pounds. It was about two- 
thirds gold and was estimated by Langton and Com- 
pany, bankers, at Downieville, by whom it was ex- 
hibited in January, 1855, to be of nearly $13,000 in 
value. 

During the '50s there was a local character living 
around Columbia called "Put." He was of the good- 
natured class who are too lazy to work and too honest 
to steal. He preferred to loiter around the saloons, 
coloring a meerschaum pipe by continual smoking and 
playing desultory games of bean poker for a small 
"ante." He managed to eke out a dubious living, 
but when his funds got extremely low and his credit 
was gone, he would take an outfit of pick, shovel and 
pan and go to Wood's Creek, a few miles from town, 
where he asserted, he owned a claim. 

He generally returned in about a week with a sup- 
ply of gold dust sufficient to meet immediate demands 
and enable him to resume his loafing habit. 

One summer day he was again driven, by necessity, 
to gather up his mining outfit and hie away to his 
gulch. 

On the third day after his departure he returned 
to Columbia with a nugget he had found in a mass 
of boulders, weighing seventv-two pounds and worth 
$15,000. 

87 



Without making any fuss over his good luck or 
endeavoring to attract undue attention, he shipped it 
by express to San Francisco, departed on the same 
stage with the nugget and never returned to Columbia. 



Oliver Martin was mining near Camp Corona, 
in Tuolumne County, in 1854. His partner was drowned 
in the river and he had to perform the painful duty 
of digging the grave in which to bury his body. While 
doing this and having the grave nearly dug, he un- 
covered a nugget w^eighing one hundred and four 
pounds worth $22,270. 

In June, 1858, a company of IMexicans was mining 
a gravel deposit in Salt Spring Valley, Calaveras 
County, and found lying on the bed rock a wedge- 
shaped nugget that was twenty inches long, seven 
inches thick at the largest end, sloping down to half 
an inch in thickness. It weighed eighty pounds and 
Avas valued at $17,000. 

Ira A. Willard, mining on the North Fork of 
Feather River in August, 1858, unearthed a nugget 
weighing fifty-four pounds and worth $11,700. 



A company of miners, calling themselves the Eagle 
Company, working a claim on Oregon Creek in Sierra 
County, in February, 1856, found a nugget weighing 
forty-two pounds and worth $9,000. 



Near Sonora in 1852, a miner found a nugget weigh- 
ing forty-five pounds and worth over $8,000. 

He had a friend, who had through exposure, become 
afflicted with consumption and was slowly failing. 
He gave the nugget to his friend to take East and 
exhibit there, as it was understood the gold fever 
had made it profitable to exhibit large nuggets, and 



thereby attempt to regain his health. He heard from 
him regularly as he went from place to place and pros- 
pered, then suddenly all communications ceased. Some 
years later he received notice from a banker in New 
Orleans that his friend had died and the nugget was 
in the bank's possession subject to his orders. 



Near Hornitos, in Mariposa County, in August, 
1856, two Chinamen, working in a gulch with a rocker 
uncovered a nugget that weighed thirty-four pounds 
and was worth nearly $7,000. In describing his feel- 
ings, one of the Chinamen said: "Me workee tlee 
w^eek, makee sixee bitee one day. One day him come 
big splashee. Foy Toy" (good luck). 



John Ward, mining at Vallecito, Calaveras County, 
in February, '53, found a nugget w^eighing forty-five 
pounds and worth nearly $9500. 



E. Turner, a miner, near Sonora in January, 1855, 
found a nugget weighing thirty pounds and worth 
$6400 and the next week found another weighing sis 
pounds and worth over $1200. 



A miner named Reynolds, working a claim in 
Holden's Gardens, Sonora, Tuolumne County, in Oc- 
tober, 1851, found a nugget weighing twenty-eight 
pounds and four ounces that was valued at $6120. 



Sailor Diggings on the North Fork of the Yuba, 
three miles from Downieville, was very rich in nuggets 
when it was mined by three English sailors in 1851. 

The largest nugget found was one weighing thirty- 
one pounds and many were found weighing from five 
to twenty pounds each. The sailors kept all the large 
nuggets they found and went to England with two 
large canvas bags filled with them. 

89 



They arrived in England at a time when the public 
mind was filled with the reports of gold discoveries in 
California and Australia. They began exhibiting, for 
an admission fee, their nuggets in the principal cities 
of the Kingdom and gave many a phlegmatic English- 
man an attack of gold fever that sent him sailing away 
to the gold fields. 

The largest ingot known to be cast in California 
was that produced by the Kellogg and Humbert Assay- 
ers in San Francisco, who, in October, 1859, cast a gold 
bar twelve inches long, five and one-half inches wide 
and four inches thick, weighing 2251 ounces, or one 
hundred and eighty-seven pounds, Troy. 

It was 915 fine and valued at $12,581.71. 



Of the nugget finds later than the '50s a few good 
ones are on record. 

One of the strangest freaks of good luck is that 
which fell upon a man named Daniel Hill, who was 
about as near down and out as a man could get to be, 
according to the statements of those w^ho knew him. 

In 1866 he found in Plumas County a nugget 
weighing about sixty-six pounds for which he received 
$14,000. The money remained with him only a few 
months. He went to San Francisco and squandered 
it at the rate of $5000 a mouth. When broke, he 
returned to the interior, and one day near Dutch Flat, 
he stooped down to wash his hands in a pool of water 
and saw at the bottom a lump of quartz about the size 
of a child's head, that had a small streak of gold 
across it. 

From this lump he obtained $12,300. The money 
did him no more good than the first find and it is said 
he died a pauper. It is seldom good luck visits a man 
twice and why should it "waste its fragrance on the 
desert air" is a mystery unexplainable. 

90 



J. D. Colgrove at Dutch Flat in 1866 found a 
nugget weighing twenty-seven pounds and worth 
$5760. 

In 1871 it is claimed a nugget weighing one hun- 
dred and six pounds and two ounces was found on 
Eattlesnake Creek and another weighing ninety-six 
pounds was found on Kanaka Creek, Sierra County, 
but neither the names of the finders nor the value 
of the nuggets is given. 



A beautiful lump was found in a hydraulic mine 
near Forest City, Sierra County, in August, 1871. 
The mine was in litigation so it could not be said 
who were the owners. It was placed in charge of 
Charles N. Felton, the U. S. Sub-Treasurer in San 
Francisco. It weighed seventy-seven pounds and its 
water weight showed fifty-eight and a half pounds 
of gold in value about $12,000. 



In 1883 the Rainbow Mine in Sierra County, at 
a depth of two hundred feet, found a slab of quartz 
and gold that yielded $20,468. It was part of a 
pocket from which $120,000 Avas obtained. 



In July, 1886, it was reported that a company 
of Chinamen, who were working a claim near Dutch 
Flat, which they had bought from a banker of that 
town, named Nichols for $300, had found a nugget 
weighing one hundred and twenty-three pounds and 
worth $26,000. 

Richard Steelman and Philip Hayes mining in 
Gold Valley, fifteen miles from Sierra City, found in 
July, 1886, a lump weighing thirty-seven pounds con- 
taining thirty-two pounds of gold and worth $7000. 

91 



This was the second large lump they had found 
within a few years. The first was worth $2200. 



FREAK SHAPES OF NUGGETS 

B. F. Wardell, mining on the Middle Fork of the 
American in 1850, found a nugget weighing six pounds, 
that had a round hole in the center just the size for 
a candle to fit in it. He used it for several years on 
his cabin table as a candlestick and when he con- 
cluded to sell it the assa^^er had to remove about half 
an inch of candle grease from it in order to obtain 
its correct weight. 

In French Ravine, Sierra County, in 1855, a Mis- 
sourian named Smith, found two nuggets that were 
called the Siamese Twins. 

One weighed fifty pounds and was attached to an- 
other that weighed fifteen pounds, by a small band of 
gold about half an inch in diameter. Unfortunately, 
as far as their being kept for a curiosity was concerned, 
they were finally broken apart. Together their value 
was over $13,000. 

In 1851 a miner named Chapman found in his 
claim, on the IMiddle Fork of the Yuba, a nugget 
shaped exactly like a horseshoe. It weighed twenty- 
eight pounds and was worth $6000. 

It was first purchased by Major Jack Stratman, 
a celebrity of San Francisco, whose mustache was a 
conspicuous advertising feature when he was in the 
heyday of his career. 

At Corral Flat near Mokelumne Hill, in December, 
1853, a nugget was found that was an exact counter- 
part of the hook on the end of a log chain. It weighed 
six and one-half pounds and was valued at $1400. 



In September, 1854, a nugget was found weighing 
two and one-half pounds, near Coloma, which was de- 
clared to be the most beautiful formation of virgin 
gold ever seen. 

It was ten inches long, three inches wide and a 
quarter of an inch thick and resembled a bunch of 
fronds of a fern. 

In February, 1853, at Curtisville, Tuolumne County, 
a Mexican company unearthed a lump of quartz and 
gold weighing seven pounds, four of which was gold, 
that was spread over one side of the quartz in the 
shape of a mistletoe branch, showing the twigs and 
leaves in perfect duplication. 



C. F. Holmes in December, 1855, found on the 
North Fork of the Cosumnes, a nugget four inches 
long, that was the perfect shape of a small boot. It 
weighed over one pound and was worth $240. 



A miner named Wiley at Butte City, Amador 
County, in 1856, found a lump of quartz that had the 
gold running through it like gossamer lines and was 
a perfect representation of a spider's golden web. It 
was spoken of as a remarkably beautiful specimen. 



The gold taken from several bars on the Mokelumne 
Eiver resembled cucumber and pumpkin seeds and a 
bushel measure, filled with these nuggets, would not 
vary in size and shape any more that such a measure 
filled with real seeds would. 

The cause of gold being in this form has never 
been satisfactorily explained. 



In 1848 a young man named Taylor at Kelsey. 
eight miles from Coloma, picked up in the bed of a 
gulch, a red stone about six inches long that was 

93 



inlaid on the under side with about two pounds of 
gold. 

The work was as perfectly done as though a gold- 
smith had done it. The contrast in colors made it a 
rare and beautiful specimen. 



A nugget was found at Bald Mountain, near Forest 
City, that was almost a perfect image of a human being. 

It weighed eight ounces. 

The legs and feet were there; the left hand had 
only four fingers and was placed on the breast; the 
right hand hung down and the head was erect and in 
such a dignified position, a Cockney, on seeing it, said, 
it looked to him like an image of the Lord Mayor of 
London. 

A nugget, looking like a cluster of arborescent 
crystals, was found in August, 1865, in the Grit Claim 
at Spanish Dry Diggings, in El Dorado County. It 
weighed eight and a half pounds and was worth about 
$1800, but it was such a beautiful specimen of dendrite 
gold, a ]Mr. Fricot, living in Grass Valley, paid $3500 
for it and took it to Paris to place on exhibition. 

A FEW SMALLER NUGGETS AND BIG PAY 

Thousands of nuggets from one to thirty pounds 
in weight were found during the '50s of which no men- 
tion was ever made. 

From the few that were we have selected the follow- 
ing to record: 

A miner named Stevenson, working in Mariposa 
Diggings on April 18, 1851, found a nugget weighing 
fourteen and one-half pounds ; the next day one 
weighing four and one-half pounds and on the day 
after that another weighing over three pounds. His 
claim yielded over twenty-five pounds of gold that 
week. 



94 



In October, 1851, a miner named Reynolds, found 
in his claim in Ilolden's Garden, Sonora, a nugget 
weighing twenty-eight and one-fourth pounds and 
worth over $6000. 

A miner named Kelley, in March, 1852, found a 
nugget weighing seven and one-half pounds in the 
stage road near Lower Springs, Shasta County. 



In April, 1852, W. L. Durham, near Bayecito, 
Tuolumne County, picked a twenty-five and one-half 
pound nugget valued at $5500. 



In March, 1852, a couple of miners near Valle- 
cito, Calaveras County, dug out a twenty-eight pound 
nugget worth over $6000. 



In June, 1852, a miner called "Ben the Boatman," 
tried to sell his claim «for $75 at "Whiskey Creek, on 
the Yuba River. Being unsuccessful, he began to 
work it himself and dug out an eighteen-pound nugget. 



In August, 1852, Geo. Van Brunt, mining near 
Downieville, found a fifteen-pound nugget and took 
out $4000 in one day. 

A miner, working in Mad Ox Canyon in Shasta 
County, in October, '52, found a nine and one-half 
pound nugget and a four-pound nugget during the 
same w^eek. 

In April, 1853, a miner named Weems, in Indian 
Gulch, Tuolumne County, found a seven and three- 
quarter pound nugget and the next day one weighing 
nine pounds both valued at $3800. 

95 



In May, 1853, a miner named Clark in Tehama 
Ravine, Shasta County, uncovered a nugget weighing 
fourteen pounds and two hours later another weigh- 
ing four pounds, making nearty $4000 for his day's 
work. 

On June 10, '53, a miner named Gilman in Paca- 
yune Guleh, near Mokelumne Hill, found a sixteen- 
pound nugget worth $3300, 



Two good little boj'S attending a Sunday School 
picnic at the head of Algerine Gulch, near Sonora, on 
May 2, '54, while throwing stones at some birds, picked 
up a nugget weighing one and one-half pounds and 
worth over $300. 



"Uncle Joe" Sweigart at Rough and Ready in 
June, '54, found an eighteen-pound nugget. 



An Italian miner in Three Pines Gulch near 
Columbia, picked up a nugget weighing twenty-three 
pounds worth $4800 in May, 1854. 



Frank Cook went to Kanaka Creek, broke, in April, 
1855. He took up a claim and worked clearing off 
the top dirt until ]\Iay 18th, when he made his first 
washing. There was one nugget weighing twenty 
pounds and another Avorth over $200 in his clean up. 

In September, 1856, a miner named BrowQ, found 
a nugget weighing sixteen pounds in French Gulch, 
Shasta County. . 

Cress brother, mining in Big Canyon near Diamond 
Springs in IMarch, '57, found a twenty-four-pound 
nugget that was valued at over $4800. 



96 



A lump of gold quartz weighing seventeen pounds 
was found near Columbia on Christmas Day, '53, 
that was worth $1700. 



Many a pocket and crevice were uncovered during 
the '50s from which gold was scooped in handfuls and 
panfuls. Among those reported were these: 

Three tipsy sailors in September, 1850, made their 
appearance on Murderer's Bar on the American River, 
and while they knew how to weigh an anchor they 
did not know how to weigh an ounce of gold. They 
began to mine with pick and pan and on the first 
day took out twenty-nine pounds of gold. They 
worked their claim a little over one month and then 
went back to San Francisco with over five hundred 
pounds of gold valued at $105,000. 



In April, 1851, Gregoric Contreras and his partner 
took their horn spoons and bateas to Sullivan's Gulch 
near Sonora, and inside of twenty-four hours washed 
out a nugget weighing eight pounds, and enough 
chispas to make a yield of twenty-eight pounds, worth 
$5700 from a hole four feet square. 



Dr. Gillette on his way to Mokelumne Hill, while 
resting in the shade of a tree at noon in May, 1851, 
carelessly struck his pick in the ground and turned 
into view a two-pound nugget. He and a companion 
dug out fourteen pounds of gold from that spot 
during the afternoon. 

In October, 1851, two negro brothers worked a 
claim at Mokelumne Hill, and cleaned up in four weeks 
over $80,000 which they took East with them. 

97 



In January, 1852, three miners working on Mis- 
souri Bar on the American River, washed out in three 
days with a rocker gold to the value of $4650. 



Ten miners working a river claim on the Stanislaus 
at the mouth of Jackass Gulch, Tuolumne County, took 
out seven and one-half pounds of gold in two hours 
in September, '52. One bucket of gravel yielded 
$350. They had found a rich crevice that extended 
entirely across the river bed. 



In January, 1852, the miners of Volcano, Amador 
County, cleaned up $150,000 and shipped it to San 
Francisco in a wagon guarded by nine men. 



A miner named Perry, working on Park's Bar 
on the Yuba in October, '52, took out in one day 
eighty-six pounds of gold, worth $18,300. 

Five sailors working a claim at Gold Bluff, near 
Downieville, in October, '52, cleaned up twenty-six 
pounds of gold in one afternoon. 



Four miners had a claim on Douglas Flat, near 
i\rurphy's and sold it February, '53, for $3000. They 
had taken out five hundred pounds of gold in seven 
months and left for the East. 



H. C. Carpenter on September 9, '53, took out from 
under Stockton Hill, near Mokelumne Hill, six pounds 
of gold worth $1200. 



A negro mining in Indian Gulch, near Columbia in 
October, '53, panned out in two days seven and one- 
half pounds of gold worth $1521. 

98 



The Alleghany Company, on Texas Bar on the 
Yuba in October, '53, took out in three daj^s thirty- 
six pounds of gold worth over $7600. 



On Randolph Hill, near Grass Valley, $2650 was 
washed out on October 17, '53, some of the nuggets 
weighed two pounds. 



Caldwell's Garden, near Columbia, was a famous 
rich placer in the '50s. 



In December, '54, four miners struck dirt that 
paid twenty ounces to the pan. They took out $4000 
in two days and then sold their claim for $5000. 



In January, '55, this claim yielded seventeen 
pounds of gold in one day. 



In March, '56, this claim was reported as having 
paid $15,250 in fifteen days, and in 1858, the Gardens 
made a record of $100,000 in four months. 



Walton & Company took out $10,000 in one day 
at Snow Point near Grass Valley in January, '55. 



The Red Tunnel Company, at City of Six, Sierra 
County, took out ten and a half pounds in three 
days in February, '55. 



Norris and McFadden, mining under Stockton 

Hill, near Mokelumne Hill, on February 18, '55, 

took out thirty-two pounds of gold. They obtained 
$28,000 in the next three months. 



Woolzy and partner on Jackass Gulch took out 
$15,000 in three months in '55, and Martin & Com- 



99 



pany, mining on Stewart's Hill, Calaveras County, 
found $8000 on May 10, '55. 



Page & Company on Rattlesnake Bar, Placer 
County, in May, '55, took out in one day seven 
pounds and a miner named Armstead, nearby, took 
out six pounds. 

Ryan at Eureka, Sierra County, cleaned up six- 
teen and a half pounds from three days' work in 
May, '55. 

A company of Chinamen, mining on the American 
River in Placer County, took out $20,000 in one 
week in June, 1855. 

The Wisconsin Tunnel Company, at Iowa Hill, 
using a rocker, washed out six and one-quarter pounds 
of gold on April 3, '55. 



Dan Stevens, at Downieville, took out in one day 
in April, '55, five and one-quarter pounds of gold. 



Four miners, working on Douglas Flat, on October 
17, '55, took out one hundred and thirty pounds of 
gold valued at $27,600. 



The American Star Company, on Negro Hill, 
Sierra County, took out thirty-three and a half pounds 
of gold in one week, during December, '55. 



The January Claim on Iowa Hill on December 7, 
'55, washed out thirty-five pounds of gold valued at 
$7250. 

Michael Talbot, in Sherlock Gulch, Mariposa 
County, in December, '55, took out $3200 in two days. 

100 



In December, 1855, Bowan & Bond took out 
five pounds of gold in five hours and a company of 
Frenchmen, working in the Tuohimne River, found a 
crevice and took out $3500. On the next day they 
had to quit work on account of the riffles in their 
sluices becoming clogged with gold and they could 
hold no more. What this last clean up amounted to, 
cannot be conjectured. 

A company, working under Table Mountain, Tuol- 
umne County, took out seventeen pounds of gold in 
February, '56. 

A Chinaman, working alone with a rocker near 
Oroville in February, '56, washed out $674 in one day. 



Twenty-one miners left Shasta in April, '56, for 
the east, taking $141,000 worth of gold dust with 
them. They had shipped more than that "home" 
during the few years spent in California. 



Four men on Scott River, Siskiyou County, took 
out thirteen and one-half pounds of gold in one week 
in August, '56. 

At Butte City, Amador County, in Januar^^, '57, 
Dr. Harris, with two partners, took out $8000 in 
one day and $5000 on the next. 



An Italian company, working on Brown's Flat, 
Tuolumne County, in January, '57, found $12,000 in 
four days and took out $18,000 more during the month. 



Big yields were reported in April, '57, from the 
hj^draulic mines on Smith's Flat, Sierra County. The 
Knickerbocker Company washed out eighty-four 
pounds; the Alleghany Company, one hundred and 



101 



twenty pounds, and the Pacific Company, seventy-five 
pounds. 



On Sucker Creek near Yreka, four miners washed 
out $75,000 in one week in April, '57. 



The Monumental Company, at Forest City, took 
out one hundred and thirty-five pounds of gold worth 
$28,000 in April, '57. 



During 1858 the five principal gold dust buyers 
of Placerville bought 6,626 pounds of gold produced 
by the placer miners in that vicinitj^ They paid 
to the miners $1,431,244. Other buyers bought prob- 
ably half a million more so that about four tons 
of gold was washed out and $2,000,000 obtained 
during the year. 



The Dunning Claim, on a buried channel on an 
ancient river bed near San Andreas, cleaned up forty- 
two and a half pounds of gold in January, '59. The 
dirt was a cement which had to be exposed to the air 
for some time before washing. More than thirty com- 
panies were sinking to strike this old channel. 



Corcoran and Forest, at San Andreas in July, 
'59, struck a crevice and from two pans of dirt 
obtained two and a half pounds of gold. Several ounce 
pieces were found. The crevice yielded over $1000 
in one day. 



At Mugginsville, McGillicuddy Bros, in May, '59, 
took out $3000 in one day. One nugget weighed 
four pounds. 



102 



Philip Arnold and one man mining on AVillow 
Creek near Galena Hill, washed $22,500 in ninety days 
in May, '59. One day $1600 was gathered in. 



Hess & Company, at Brownsville, El Dorado 
County, ground sluiced their claim in October, '59, 
for twenty days and cleaned up thirty-seven pounds 
of gold worth $8177. 



J. Plowell and the Linn Bros., working a quarter 
of a mile from Mariposa, struck a pocket in August, 
'59, from which they took $30,000 in one day. An 
editor said: ''The sight of this gold makes us sick 
of editing a one-horse paper in a one-horse town 
surrounded by a lot of one-horse Politicians." 



With the advent of the '60s there was a decided 
change in the character of the press items from the 
placer mining counties. 

The development of deep mining, hydraulicking, in- 
troduction of machinery, formation of large compan- 
ies and their capitalization was causing a great change. 
There were more items detailing accidents to miners 
employed by companies than of good luck finds and 
strikes of individuals. 

The Pioneers of the "fall of '49 and spring of 
'50" now began to mourn the departure of the good 
old times. 

GOOD LUCK IN QUARTZ BOULDERS 

Full many a boulder, moss covered and gold lined, 
The deep ravines and rocky gulches bear; 
Pull many a weary miner, will, unsearching, find. 
The gold, Good Luck, is hiding there. 

To the fact that many quartz boulders, seamed with 
gold, were broken away from their mother ledges and 

103 



scattered by glaciers, slides and floods, throughout the 
placer districts, was due many Good Luck finds. These 
quartz boulders were at first given slight attention. 
They were regarded by many of the first miners, as 
obstructions and were moved aside, with other bould- 
ers, without giving them any inspection or concern. 
But, when, with the knowledge gained by experience it 
became known that full many a lump of gold these 
silicated masses concealed, they received the close in- 
spection their possible value deserved. 

Many a miner found unexpected wealth in the 
quartz boulders that some ignorant and careless miner 
had previously handled and moved aside as a thing 
of no value. 

The first quartz boulder, seamed with gold, that 
yielded a treasure to its finder, of which there is a 
record, is one found by Wm. Gulnac, in Wood's Creek, 
Tuolumne County, in 1848. He had only been in the 
country a few weeks when he unexpectedly landed it. 
It weighed one hundred and fifty pounds and yielded 
seventy-five pounds of gold worth nearly $16,000. 



The largest detached gold-bearing cpiartz boulder 
found in California was unearthed in December, 1855, 
in a drift claim being Avorked by Fennely and Cody 
at Minnesota, Sierra County. It was fifteen feet and 
six inches long, ten feet wide and eight feet and six 
inches thick; about half as large as an ordinary box 
car. It was estimated to weigh eighty tons. When it 
appeared in the drift the miners first went over it, then 
around it, before they ascertained it was rich in gold. 
They had cursed their luck on account of it being in 
their way. Pieces broken off its uneven surface, 
amounting in weight to about one thousand pounds, 
yielded thirteen pounds of gold, worth over $2700. 
The boulder had to be carefully blasted, in order to 
remove it, and was estimated to contain all the way 

104 



from $20,000 to $100,000 worth of gold. We are un- 
able to ascertain what it did yield. 



This Minnesota Mining District in Sierra County, 
near Alleghany, and betw^een Kanaka Creek and the 
Middle Fork of the Yuba River, w^as a place prolific 
with these rich quartz boulders. 

In February, 1857, the Juanita Company rolled one 
out of their mine that weighed one hundred and sixty- 
two pounds and was found to contain thirty-five pounds 
of gold, worth over $7000. Near the center of this 
boulder was found a lump of solid gold weighing over 
two pounds. The boulder was round and smooth show- 
ing it had been rolled and submerged a long time before 
it had a resting place in the ancient river bed where 
it was found lying. 

Another quartz boulder found there a short time 
afterward, but not so large, yielded $5300 worth of 
gold and a third came in view during '57 that held 
a treasure of $1400. In April, 1857, the Wisconsin 
Companv, nearbv, found a quartz boulder that yielded 
$5349. 

In the Blue Tunnel Company, in this district, in 
]\Iay, 1854, a miner was running a car of dirt out, 
when it jumped the scantling railroad track and struck 
against a quartz boulder sticking a few inches out of 
the side of the tunnel. The collision of the car with 
the boulder broke a piece of it off and disclosed the gold 
it contained. It yielded $1400. 



Starling and Company, ground sluicing on Coyote 
Gulch, near Vallecito, in May, 1854, washed out a 
quartz boulder, weighing thirty pounds, which con- 
tained twenty-two pounds of gold worth $4700. 

Two IMexicans, coyoting in the bank a year before, 
had tunneled two feet below it and consequently, 
missed the chunk by .a few inches. This gulch was 

105 



quite prolific with large nuggets. In '52 one of twen- 
ty-six pounds and in '53 a number weighing forty- 
five, eleven, ten, six and three and a half pounds were 
found. 



Down in Mariposa, in February, 1854, after a heavy 
downpour of rain, a negro named Duff and a German 
lad called Fritz entered into a mining partnership 
and went out prospecting in a gulch about a half mile 
from the town. During the afternoon Duff seated him- 
self to take a rest on a quartz boulder standing partly 
out of the ground. While seated upon it, he glanced 
down and saw the gleam of a narrow streak of gold 
beneath a part of its uneven surface. They pried it 
out and had a prize in a boulder weighing one hundred 
and ninety-three pounds, from which was taken thirty- 
seven pounds of gold worth $7600. 



In 1851, a miner named Strain was walking up a 
trail from a gulch about a half mile from Columbia, 
Tuolumne County. In the trail, about half way up 
the hill, was a slab-shaped boulder of quartz, fourteen 
inches long and nine inches wide, upon and over which 
hundreds of miners had stepped during the years the 
trail had been made and used. Curiosity, to see how 
deep the quartz boulder set in the ground, prompted 
Strain, with his pick to move it out, and on turning 
it over he found it was about as thick as it was wide, 
weighed about fifty pounds and Avas streaked with 
gold on its under side. The boulder was pounded up 
in a hand mortar and yielded $8500. There was no 
quartz ledge in the vicinit}^ that it could have been 
broken from and from whence it came and how it was 
moved there remained a mystery. 



Tadpole Creek in Shasta County was a busy scene 
of mining operations in 1850 and was carelessly and 



106 



hurriedly worked by the placer miners of that early 
period. 

In 1856 a company began reworking portions of 
the creek and in doing so moved a pile of tailings 
deposited by the miners of 1850. Amongst the rocks 
and boulders of this pile was found a quartz boulder 
about the size of a man's head weighing nineteen 
pounds which had been handled several different times 
before it was discovered to contain gold. It yielded 
seven pounds of gold worth $1500. 



In 1857 some Frenchmen, mining in French Gulch, 
Shasta County, found a mass of quartz weighing three 
hundred pounds. Throughout was spread seams of 
gold in such a peculiar and even manner that it was 
decided to cut it into equal parts with a bucksaw and 
give each man his share without delay. One of their 
number was selected to do the dividing and the sawing. 
He was allowed to keep the golden sawdust that 
dropped from the boulder as his pay for his trouble. 
He realized $150 from it. It was never known what 
the value of this boulder was, as most of the French- 
men sent their portions direct to France. 



E. H. Virgil, working a claim with a partner named 
West in French Gulch near Columbia, Tuolumne 
County, in 1857, sold it to go to Fraser River in 
British Columbia, following the rush that went from 
California to that excitement. 

They afterwards returned and bought back the 
claim. While working on the bedrock a few weeks 
afterwards and wielding a pick. Virgil felt the point 
strike something hard which caused him to investigate. 
He disclosed a part of a lump of gold attached to a 
quartz boulder. He tried to raise it but it was too 
heavy and in his excitement he had little strength 
anjnvay. He called to his partner. West, and while 

107 



he, too, had an excitement weakness, they finally re- 
leased the find and had it lying before them. The 
good luck alarm spread and miners from adjacent 
claims gathered to view the discovery. Finally a pro- 
cession was formed and they all escorted Virgil to the 
express office where he deposited his boulder. It 
weighed ninety-eight pounds, was over half gold and 
Virgil received $11,750 for it. 



Two men named Dayton and Buckmier, with two 
partners, had been mining near Pilot Hill for several 
months during 1857 and had made little more than 
expenses. The two partners, in a feeling of disgust, 
sold out for three hundred dollars apiece and quit. 
Two daj^s after they left the two owners had to remove 
a large quartz boulder that had laid in their claim for 
some time and was now in the way of operations. 
On account of its size, they had put off its removal 
as long as possible. It weighed over half a ton. In 
an attempt to pry it over with a crowbar a piece weigh- 
ing about seventy-five pounds was broken off and dis- 
closed the fact the boulder was composed of quartz 
and gold. $1750 was obtained from the seventy-five 
pound piece and the whole boulder yielded over $15,000. 



In July, 1858, at Stewart's Flat, in Placer County, 
a company composed of six men who came from Ohio 
and called themselves "The Buckeye Company," were 
working adjacent to a quartz ledge which projected 
out of the side of the hill above their claim. One day 
they dislodged a large boulder from it which rolled 
doA\Ti and broke into a number of pieces, revealing the 
gold concealed within it. They got $8000 out of the 
mass. 



In the summer of 1856 several miners were work- 
ing with varying success a placer claim in El Dorado 

108 



County. The returns finally became so discouraging 
they were about to move away and find better diggings. 
,While laying down his tools to go to his dinner at 
the cabin one day, one of the men looked down at a 
quartz boulder lying on the bedrock at his feet and 
struck it a vicious blow with his pick to vent his 
grouchy feelings on the inanimate rock. The pick 
point broke it in two. Streaks of gold were shown 
across the fractured sides and it was pounded up in 
a hand mortar, yielding twenty-five pounds of gold 
worth over $5000. 



Down in Mariposa, during the '50s there was a 
miner named Wm. Blixan, who made a specialty of 
hunting for quartz boulders and so successful was he 
that he gained the sobriquet of "Boulder Bill." Like 
the hunters of big game "Boulder Bill" would disap- 
pear for a time from around the town and then re- 
appear like a hunter with bear meat with the object 
of his hunt ready for disposal to the gold dust buyer. 
Boulders yielding $1000 and more, were frequently 
found by him and small finds of a few hundred dollars 
in value were so numerous as not to be considered 
worth mentioning. During 1858 he found four quartz 
boulders of unusual size and richness; one that weighed 
two hundred and forty pounds, contained four and a 
half pounds of gold yielding him nearly $1000 and 
the others gave him a couple of thousand dollars more. 



In February, '58, a citizen of Mariposa, named 
Nichols, found in his back yard a quartz boulder weigh 
ing fifty pounds that contained $2000 in gold. 



A quartz boulder forty-two pounds in weight was 
'found five hundred feet below the surface in the Jenny 
Lind Mine in Placer County in February, '58, and was 
worn smooth by erosion of water and contact. It 

109 



yielded twelve and a half pounds of gold valued at 
$2600. 



In May, 1858, a miner named Stewart, at Moore's 
Flat in Nevada County, found in his claim a quartz 
boulder that weighed one hundred and seventy-five 
pounds. On reaching over to grasp it, so as to roll 
it out of the way, he took hold of a piece of gold 
projecting several inches from its surface and his 
surprise can be imagined when he saw what he had 
hold of. This lump of gold, Avhen broken away from 
the quartz, was worth over $1000. The boulder yielded 
$4060. 



A quartz boulder found at Forest Hill. Placer 
County, in May, '58, weighing forty-four pounds, was 
over half gold and was valued at $5000. It was placed 
on exhibition at the Forrest Theater in Sacramento 
at twenty-five cents a peep. 



A quartz boulder found near Columbia in May, 
'59, was bought by W. O. Sleeper who crushed and 
melted it. It weighed thirty-seven pounds and he ob- 
tained twenty-nine pounds of gold from it w^orth $6750. 



In 1859, Jerry Green and his brother were working 
a claim at Remington Hill, Nevada County. They 
had a gang of men employed and were developing on 
a large scale. Part of a quartz boulder was found that 
was oval in shape, very like an immense egg. It had 
been broken in two near the middle. The fractured 
end was worn smooth by the action of water which 
indicated that the parts had separated many years 
previous, therefore, when the missing part was not 
immediately found, it was not considered strange. In- 
structions were given to all hands to watch carefully 
for the missing part as work progressed. The part 

110 



found contained eighteen pounds of gold worth $4000 
and it was expected that the missing part was a prize 
equally as valuable. A week passed without the missing 
part being found. At this time an old miner, who had 
worked for the Green Brothers a long time, announced 
his intention to quit mining and go to the valley to live 
on a farm. Incipient rheumatism was given as a 
reason. Rolling up his blankets one morning he de- 
parted. Several hours after he had gone, one of the 
Greens became suspicious of the old miner's move- 
ments and went after him. He was overtaken several 
miles away and compelled to unroll his blankets. In 
the middle of the roll was found the other part of the 
quartz egg. It yielded fourteen and a half pounds of 
gold worth over $3000. The egg-shaped boulder when 
put together contained thirty-two and a half pounds 
of gold worth over $7000. 



On August 18, 1869, a quartz boulder was found 
in the Monumental Mine, near Sierra Buttes, Sierra 
County, that can probably be classed as a nugget. It 
originally weighed one hundred and forty pounds, but 
a few pounds were broken off in getting it out. It 
weighed, when seen in San Francisco, one hundred and 
thirty-three pounds, Troy. It is described as being 
like a rice pudding filled with raisins; it was a lump 
of quartz filled with nuggets instead, rather than a 
solid mass. 

Wm. A. Farrish and three others were the owners 
and they sold it to R. B. Woodward, proprietor of 
Woodward's Gardens, a popular San Francisco resort, 
who bought it for exhibition purposes and paid $21,636, 
its estimated gold value, for it. Subsequently, it was 
crushed and melted and yielded $17,654 in gold. Farish 
has stated that two hundred and fifteen pounds of 
gold, worth $46,000, was taken out in one day frora 
this mine. 

. Ill 



In August, 1897, it was reported that two brothers 
named Graves, working what was called the Blue Jay 
mine in Trinity County, found a lump of quartz, which 
had to be broken in pieces to get it out, that con- 
tained gold to the value of $42,000, but this has been 
shown to be a pocket and not a boulder. 



That ''all is not gold that glitters," was proven 
by the experience of a miner on Snake Bar, Shasta 
County in 1859. He discovered a quartz boulder 
streaked with yellow veins on the Bar, which he carried 
to his cabin and it was estimated by himself and a 
number of experienced miners to contain not less 
than $5000 worth of gold. It was so announced in 
the papers and for several daj^s, while the lucky 
finder stood guard over his treasure, it created quite 
a furore in that section. When he finally obtained a 
hand mortar and prepared to crush and secure the 
gold in it, a few blows, with a sledge hammer, dis- 
closed it to be only a mass of barren quartz. It had 
lain a number of years adjacent to a Chinese gambling 
house on the Bar and the Chinese gamblers had been 
using it to brighten their yens — the small brass coins 
with a hole in the center, which are used in the game of 
Fan Tan — and this had yellow-streaked the surface 
of the quartz boulder. 

GOOD LUCK IN DECOMPOSED QUARTZ SEAMS 

Not one man in ten thousand of those who came 
to California to mine for gold in the '50s knew there 
was an affinity between quartz and gold. To ignor- 
ance of this fact was due some of the most stupendous 
streaks of good luck during the placer mining era. 
To searching for placer deposits or doing something 
in connection therewith to improve conditions and get 
better results, was due the accidental uncovering of 

112- 



many of the auriferous veins of the decomposed quartz 
seams found. These treasure deposits were narrow, 
shallow, ribbon-like seams, not of great length but of 
great richness. When near a well-defined quartz 
ledge, they were called stringers, but they were oftener 
discovered in the most unexpected places. The quartz, 
that the seam contained, was by the action of frost in 
winter, heat in summer, air and water so disintegrated, 
it was called rotten stone, and it hung to the threads 
of gold in such a manner that it could be easily 
separated from the metal. Evidently, the silicified mass, 
impregnated with liquid gold, was forced up by the 
internal forces of the earth, filled the fissure and 
then became solidified countless ages ago. Its dis- 
integration had slowly progressed until now its hidden 
treasure was ready for the hand of the miner to 
grasp. 

One of the first men to stumble upon a fortune 
from this source was a young man named Jenkins who 
was mining, in the summer of 1851, near the head 
of Missouri Gulch in Placer County. His claim, high 
up in the ravine, lacked a sufficient head of water and 
to obtain the use of all that could be had, he built 
a small dam across the gulch to hold the water that 
flowed down at night, for use by day. Noticing a 
small spring on the hillside near the head of the 
gulch, the water from which wasted itself in a small 
marshy flat and did not reach the gulch at all, he dug 
a shallow ditch from the spring, along the side of the 
hill and brought the flow from the spring to his dam. 

About ten days after completing the ditch he 
noticed the water from the spring was not reaching 
the dam and concluding a gopher hole must have 
caused the break, he shouldered a shovel and proceeded 
along the ditch to investigate. Near the head of the 
ditch, at the spring, he saw a bright yellow streak 
along the bottom of the ditch extending for a distance 



113 



of twenty feet. The glitter came from a decom- 
posed quartz seam about three inches wide, that he had 
uncovered when he dug the ditch and which the water, 
from the spring, in washing away the particles of de- 
composed quartz, had now left exposed in full view. 
In three days he extracted $41,000. He was doubly 
lucky in that during the days the vein was visible, 
none of the numerous prospectors, searching for 
diggings, had made the find. Not having located a 
claim on this ground, he could not have maintained 
an ownership. 



Three Frenchmen went to remove a stump from a 
wagon road that had been laid out on Weber Creek 
in 1851. As the stump interfered with the delivery 
of supplies to their cabin, the removing of it was a duty 
that was forced upon them. After prying it loose 
from its roots and turning it over, they found ex- 
posed, a seam of decomposed quartz from which they 
obtained $5000 in a few hours and as much more before 
it was exhausted. 



Four Dutchmen were reworking an old claim on 
Jackass Gulch, Tuolumne County in April, 1853. As 
the ground was paying poorly, they began to sink 
prospect holes in the bank to find, if possible, where 
there was better pay. On the 17th, one of the com- 
pany sank a hole about six feet from their cabin door 
and uncovered a vein of decomposed quartz. It was 
a new formation to them and not understanding it, 
they called to a prominent citizen of Sonora, named 
Colonel IngersoU, who was strolling by, to come and 
look at it. He offered them $400 for a fifth interest 
in their claim, which they accepted and then under 
the colonel's direction proceeded to work the seam. 
One hundred and seventy pounds of gold was ex- 
tracted within the next week. Colonel IngersoU, by 



114 



being in the right place, at the right time, had over 
$8000 as his share with more to come. 



The season of 1856 was a dry one in California 
and water for mining purposes became hard to get, 
especially, for the miners who were working claims 
in the so-called "Dry Diggings." This was severely 
the case in the vicinity of Georgetown in El Dorado 
Conntj^ Two young Swedes there had a claim which 
they were unable to work on account of the water 
supply failing. They decided to dig a ditch nearly 
a mile long, along the sides of the hills to where a 
supply of water could be got and brought to their 
claim. After working a week or more, one of them 
cut across a decomposed quartz seam about one foot 
below the surface. The first pan of stuff yielded $120. 
They took out $1200 the first day, $5000 on the second 
and cleaned up over $20,000 from the seam. 

On Jackson Flat, Tuolumne County in October, 
1857, three miners were working a claim, which for 
over a week, showed indications of petering out. 

An animated discussion had been going on be- 
tween the partners, at intervals, for several days, over 
the question of what they should do; whether to quit 
or prospect in some other direction. 

One day, at noon, as they quit for the noonda}^ meal, 
one of the three named Houston, who had his shovel 
on his shoulder, stopped at a place they had mined 
over and remarking: ''Here is where we got our best 
pay," pushed his shovel, with his foot, down into 
the soft bedrock and turned over a chunk. To his 
astonished gaze, there was revealed, glistening in the 
hole, a seam of gold an inch wide. He had uncovered 
a seam of decomposed quartz. They took out $2500 
worth of gold that afternoon and had thousands more 
in sight. 

115 



In AugiTst, 1857, P. H. Pierce, and a partner, lo- 
cated a quartz claim near Oroville. They put up the 
necessary notices defining the extent of their location, 
but, before doing any work upon the croppings. Pierce 
received the appointment of a government position in 
Oregon, and preferring the emoluments of office to the 
chances of mining, took his departure to the North. 
His partner did not do any development work and 
the right to the location lapsed b}^ limitation. 

Several months afterward two prospectors from 
Oroville, passing by, read the notice put up by 
Pierce and his partner. Changing the date and the 
names thereon, to fit a location by themselves, they 
set to work on the croppings to do the necessary amount 
of work to hold the claim. Unexpectedly, they un- 
covered a seam of decomposed quartz, from which 
on that day they extracted $7500 worth of gold and 
obtained over $25,000 from the vein before it petered 
out. 

Spanish Dry Diggings in El Dorado County was a 
place abounding in decomposed quartz seams. In 
1859 a seam was found that yielded in one day forty- 
six pounds of gold worth over $9000. A single pan of 
the material contained eleven pounds of gold worth 
$2300. 

Three miners named Rodgers, Barr and Croston 
located a claim there and on March 2, 1860, found a 
seam which yielded $7000. Rodgers came to the con- 
clusion that it had petered and sold his interest to his 
two partners for $1000. The next day they either 
struck the original seam again or uncovered another 
from which one pan of stuff yielded twenty-seven 
pounds of gold worth $6000. They obtained from this 
one day's work $11,550. The seam of decomposed 
quartz was about two inches wide and they followed 
it for five days, making a drift seven feet long, three 

116 



feet wide and that deep. From this they took out 
one hundred and eightv-three pounds of gold, worth 
$38,360. 




STRUCK A SEAM 



During the summer of 1859, a man named Burns, 
living in Nevada City, took a stroll along a ditch 



117 




OLD SCOTTY" in HxVRD LUCK 
118 



down Deer Creek. About a mile from town he came 
to a sluiceway which was used frequently to scour 
the ditch of slickens. The w^ater from the ditch rush- 
ing down the steep hillside to the creek had washed 
a gully several feet deep down to the bedrock. Across 
this sluiceway had been placed a board for footmen 
to walk over the opening on. When Burns stepped 
upon the board it broke and he had to jump down into 
the gully to prevent a bad fall. He landed upon his 
feet, but the slippery bedrock caused his feet to slide 
from under him and he dropped to a sitting position 
in the gully. He tried to save himself from falling 
and getting hurt by grabbing at the sides of the gully 
with his hands. In doing this he grasped in one hand 
a piece of decomposed quartz from a small seam ex- 
tending up the side of the bank. It showed specks of 
gold. He w^ent back to town and obtaining a pick 
and a sack returned to the sluiceway. Here, in a 
few hours he filled his sack wdth specimens from the 
narrow vein that yielded over $2000. The Ditch Com- 
pany took possession of the find the next day as they 
were the owners of the land. 



One of the richest decomposed quartz veins struck 
in the State was that discovered by the Rawhide Ranch 
Company near Columbia, Tuolumne County in August, 
1860. It yielded $60,000 in three days and thousands 
afterwards. 



"Old Scotty" was a prospector, who, coming from 
Scotland in '49, had been called after his native 
heath in every camp he mined from Mariposa to 
Yreka. He often declared that he and his jackass 
had found and ate and drank up three fortunes but 
would always be able to find another. I^i Sentember. 
1859. "Scotty" was prow- ling through the chaparral 
of a hill in Trinity County searching for quartz. He 

119 







120 



had left the placer diggings and was now looking 
for a ledge. Seating himself on a small level spot 
on the hillside about a hundred feet above the bed 
of a gulch, he got out his jack-knife, a plug of tobacco 
and pipe and prepared to have a smoke and a think. 
Cutting off a few pieces of tobacco from the plug, he 
stuck the blade of his jack-knife into the ground 
near his knee and began grinding the pieces of to- 
bacco to a desired fineness between the calloused palms 
of his hands. He filled his pipe, lit it and had his 
smoke and his think. When ready to move on he 
reached for his jack-knife. With its blade he lifted a 
small clod and saw attached to it a small piece of gold. 
It was rugged in shape and to ''Scotty's" experienced 
eye, it had no1 moved far from the vein that once 
held it. As gold does not climb hilLs, "Scotty" began 
a search for the vein above the spot he had been 
sitting upon. For two days he trenched and carried 
dirt down into the gulch to wash in the water flowing 
there, without finding a "color." Then he again sat 
down on the spot where he had made his discovery, 
had a smoke and a think, which ended in his taking a 
sight on a white-colored rock down in the bed of the 
gulch for a beeline from where he was sitting. With 
a boot heel making a shallow trench down its side, he 
slid down to the bottom, leaving behind him a well- 
defined boot heel mark and the seat of his trousers. 
He then began to dig and pan the dirt from the bottom 
of the gulch up the side of the hill. For a distance 
of about two feet on each side of his boot heel mark 
the dirt paid big, beyond that, there was nothing. It 
took him over three months to work the streak and he 
took out $48,000. Bej'ond finding a few small pieces 
of rotted quartz, nothing was left of the decom- 
posed quartz seam that once existed there. It had been 
entirely disintegrated by the elements of nature. 
"Scotty's" find was another case of pure Good Luck. 

121 




122 



GOOD LUCK IN QUARTZ VEINS 

That quartz was the matrix of gold was unknown, 
at the beginning of placer mining, to almost every man 
who had never before wdelded a pick or panned a 
shovelful of pay dirt. 

It took several years of experience to acquire a 
knowledge of mineralogy that informed the miner to 
look at quartz ledges as the place of origin of the gold 
in the placers. When this knowledge was gradually 
obtained, then began the following down with deep 
shafts into the bowels of the earth, the quartz ledges, 
whose croppings on the surface indicated wealth, and 
the exploring, by tunnels, of the hidden veins in the 
hills. By these persistent efforts has the development 
of the great pa^dng quartz ledges of the Coast been 
made. 

The discovery of some of the richest quartz veins 
and great lodes have been the result of accident fol- 
lowing the w^orking of placers by placer miners. Many 
of these rich mines were passed over and ignored by 
those who should have been their original discoverers 
because they did not understand quartz. 

In 1852 a miner named Daniels, from Missouri, 
was in partnership with five young Irishmen working 
on a bar on Wolf Creek in Nevada County. In shovel- 
ling the gravel away from the bedrock, he uncovered 
a small vein of quartz that extended across the bed 
of the creek. As the bar was paying well and they 
knew nothing about quartz, as well as there was no 
gold visible in the vein, they passed it by and soon 
forgot it. Three years later, Daniels again uncovered 
the vein of quartz and more out of curiosity, than ex- 
pecting to find anything of value, a few hundred pounds 
of quartz was extracted and given a test. The yield 
was a surprise. It was so good that the men com- 
menced developing the vein and it resulted in their 
discovering: the famous Allison Ranch mine. It was 



123 




124 



probably the richest gold-bearing quartz mine ever 
found in California. It produced for a number of 
years from $3000 to $5000 a day in pure gold and 
it became the custom for several years for one of the 
partners, every two weeks, to take to the mint in 
San Francisco the product of the mine for that length 
of time amounting to between $40,000 and $75,000. 
The yield for December, 1856, was probably the 
largest of any single month and it amounted to $250,- 
000. The mine yielded over $10,000,000. 



A man named Van Ness took a quartz claim on 
New York Hill, near Grass Valley, in 1855, in pay- 
ment of an indebtedness amounting to $10. He al- 
lowed it to remain unprospected until 1858, when a 
miner named White proposed to work it on shares. An 
agreement was made and he began taking out rock that 
amounted to one hundred tons in three weeks. When 
milled it yielded $10,000 and it was the beginning of 
the opening of a very rich mine. 



In 1859, Street and Soulsby, near Sonora, with 
six small stamps were taking out $100 an hour from a 
quartz vein discovered by them. Seventy-five pounds 
were taken out in one week. The mine had been yield- 
ing $30,000 a month for some time. 



The deepest gold mining shaft in California in 
jMarch, '58, was that of Hayward & Robinson at 
Sutter Creek. It was down 315 feet and had a 
ledge that Avas paying $20 a ton to mill. 

GOOD LUCK FOR MEXICANS 

The Mexicans, former owners of California and be- 
ing adjacent, were early in the field in goodly numbers 
gathering the chispas. With their cousins of Spanish 

125 



descent from Chili and other South American coun- 
tries, they were numerous enough, in nearly every 
mining town, to gain the name of Spanishtown for 
their resident district. Their social functions of the 
fandango order, while not approved by good society 
of the New England form, were quite attractive to the 
young men portion of the mining population seeking 




MEXICANS MINING 



pleasure, so that mining was not the sole occupation 
of the senor. They brought with them and held tenac- 
iously to the methods of Mexican mining, which, re- 
quired a wooden bowl, called a batea, used as a pan, 
a horn spoon, made from one of the horns of a steer 



12( 



and a short crowbar, sharp pointed at each end. With 
this outfit they were very efficient placer miners, crev- 
icing in the gnlches and on the bedrock of small creeks. 
They also introduced the arastre to crush the rich, 
partially decomposed quartz, found in surface veins. 
The arastre was composed of a small circular pit, 
walled with mud and stones, in the center of which, 
on a pivot, was a pole. To this was attached hori- 
zontal arms and fastened to their ends were heavy 
stones. A mule or mustang moved in a path around 
the circular pit and furnished the necessary motive 
powder. A few basketsful of quartz, broken into small 
pieces, thrown in and a supply of water obtained was 
all that was necessary for a day's crushing. As the 
animal power moved the crushing stones, triturating 
around, the arastre operator only had to wait until 
the quartz was pulverized enough to warrant his 
washing out the gold in his batea. It was a simple 
piece of machinery and process and was believed 
to get its popularity, with the Mexican miners, from 
the fact they had an idea the mule did all the work. 
However, the Mexican never developed into a deep 
shaft miner or a hydraulicer on a big scale and the 
California placers w^ould have lasted a thousand years 
if left to him to wash. He slowly disappeared, like 
the Chinaman, as a factor in mining as the placers 
became exhausted. Undoubtedly, many good luck 
finds were made by these prospectors but the knowl- 
edge of them seldom extended beyond the precincts 
of Spanishtown. 

In 1848, shortly after the news of Marshall's dis- 
covery reached Southern California, Mr. A. F. Cor- 
onel, a prominent don of Los Angeles and Augustin 
Janssens, a Frenchman, organized a company of about 
thirty Mexicans, natives and Indians to go on a 
trading and mining expedition into the northern 
section of the countr3\ They reached the San Joaquin 

127 



^^S ^^fciM 




'I 



128 



Valle}^ and one afternoon, when near the Stanislaus 
River, they were met by a band of seven Indians 
who desired to trade. The Indians were plentifully 
supplied with chispas of the value of which they 
seemed to have no definite idea. When they finished 
bargaining it was dark, and as they departed one of 
Coronel's men, named Benito Perez, proposed to 
take a companion and follow them to ascertain where 
the}^ obtained their gold. Perez was an experienced 
placer miner and knew that the Indians, from their 
display of chispas, must have a rich placer to obtain 
them from. Coronel consented and Perez followed 
the Indians to their rancheria on the Stanislaus River. 
Here, the next morning, he found them at work with 
short, sharp-pointed poles, turning over rocks and 
getting nuggets out of crevices. Perez joined them, 
receiving a disgruntled reception, and in a short 
time gathered, with his knife, three ounces of chispas, 
with w^hich he returned and reported to Coronel. He 
moved his party, under the guidance of Perez, to the 
bar on the Stanislaus River, which they took posses- 
sion of and divided into claims for themselves, of 
course, giving the Indians no share. Coronel, with 
the aid of two of his own Indians, obtained forty-five 
ounces of gold that clay. A man named Sepulveda 
found a nugget weighing a pound. Valdes, another 
of the party, had in his claim a spot where a large 
rock diverted the current of the stream. At a depth 
of three feet he found a pocket from which he took 
out enough gold to fill a receptacle made of a large 
towel, by tying the ends together, and it was heavy 
enough to stagger him to carry. Satisfied with what 
he had taken out, he turned the pocket over to a 
Mexican named Soto. Soto w^orked several days 
before he cleaned it out and secured fifty-two pounds 
of gold worth over $10,000. Coronel, with a INIexican 
named Tirador, then went to a small bar, a short dis- 

129 




130 



tance above this place and divided it into two claims. 
Tirador, on his claim, near the dividing line, at a 
depth of four feet, found a pocket of gold at 9 a. m., 
from which he took horn spoonfuls, one after another, 
until 4 p. m. when he had piled in a batea as much 
gold as he could lift and carry. Tired of the work 
he bade Coronel adios, telling him to help himself to 
what was left in the hole and went to camp. Coronel's 
claim had paid only a few ounces so he was glad to 
take Tirador 's place and he worked until too dark to 
see, lifting golcl out of the hole. After Coronel quit, 
others in the camp, with the aid of improvised lights, 
worked on the pocket all night, so that when Tirador 
resumed in the morning the deposit was soon cleaned 
out. Tirador, then began selling his gold to all who 
could pay in silver money, at $2.50 an ounce. Coronel 
bought seventy-six ounces, all he had silver money 
to pay for at that price. With his money, Tirador 
bought a supply of whiskey, opened a monte game 
on a blanket and in a few days was back to his normal 
financial condition again. 



In November, 1851, three Mexicans prospecting in 
Bear Valley, south of Sonora, found a rich deposit in 
a formation hitherto unmet by them. They took out 
$200,000 in one week. Fearing, under the mining 
rules, they could not hold the claim, they confided 
in and entered into partnership with four American 
miners, who had treated them kindly. From a hole 
twelve feet deep and twenty feet square they took out 
altogether $400,000 in twenty days. On November 4th 
the news of the strike began to spread and soon a 
rush began. By December 1st over three thousand men, 
women and children were there and a town of three 
hundred tents and hastil^^-constructed houses com- 
prised the settlement that had come into existence 
within thirty daj^s' time. The hills all around were 

131 



located as mining claims. Few, however, found the 
fortunes they sought. 

The rich vein which had caused the excitement, 
pinched and was considered worked out in January, 
1852, and abandoned by its owners. In 1862, a com- 
pany, under a superintendent named McKay, sunk 
a shaft on this vein and ten feet below where its orig- 
inal owners had quit w^ork, the vein was again struck 
and found to be as rich as it was above. From three 
pounds of vein material taken out the day it was 
found $98 was obtained. 



In February, 1853, three Mexican prospectors found 
a decomposed quartz deposit near Curtisville, Tuol- 
umne County. They took out sixty pounds of gold, 
worth $12,700 in two days. They became anxious 
about being able to hold their claim and w^ent to 
Sonora for advice. This resulted in their taking into 
partnership three Americans. The good luck fell 
upon Mayor Dodge, Theo. Dodge and Abel Holstead, 
who went to Curtisville and worked out the golden 
seam with the Mexicans. Thej^ took out on the next 
day one lump of decomposed quartz, weighing seven 
pounds, from which they obtained four pounds of gold. 
Gold was taken out in pound quantities and about 
$100,000 was taken out of the vein. 



A female who had an unexpected streak of good 
luck thrown upon her, was a I\Iexican woman living 
on the outskirts of Sonora. Her cabin was located 
on the side of a hill, above a gulch, in which w^as a 
spring from where she carried water used for house- 
hold purposes. One evening, while returning from 
the spring, she slipped and fell. She upset the bucket 
of water she was carrying. The water rushing down 
by the side of the trail washed out a small gully. 
In this, the next morning, she saw exposed to view, 

132 



by the flow of water from the upset bucket, a nugget 
weighing seventeen pounds and worth $3500. 

GOOD LUCK FOR FRENCHMEN 
In 1851, an ingot of gold weighing one hundred 
pounds was made in San Francisco. It was sent 
to Paris and there placed on exhibition. It stirred 
up great enthusiasm on the part of the French people 
and many expressed a desire to go to California. 
Hundreds of Frenchmen visited the American Min- 
ister to get information of where California was, 
how to get there and what the country was like. 
Many who desired to go were financially unable to 
do so. The great distance made the expense too great 
for their finances to bear. A genius connected with 
the French government reasoned that it would be of 
■incalculable benefit to have a hirge French colony in 
the gold fields and he prevailed upon the officials 
of the government to purchase the ingot, dispose of it 
by lottery and thereby raise a fund equal to $100,000 
to be used as a revolving fund for emigration pur- 
poses. To send as many worthy Frenchmen, as pos- 
sible, who were poor in purse, but desired to go to 
California, was his object. 

The lottery was a success. Tickets were sold in 
Belgium, Germany and other European countries. The 
prize was won by a poor brick mason who lived in 
Paris and it was valued at $22,000. Several thousand 
Frenchmen "were assisted by the government to go to 
California and they made good. It was not intended 
to send any of the scum of society from France to 
the new country, but only those who had brain and 
brawn and who would aid in helping others to do 
likewise. They were called '' 'L 'Ingots." Some re- 
turned to France with wealth, but most of them 
remained and became prosperous and excellent citizens 
of the Pacific Coast. 



133 



Four of the " 'L 'Ingots" formed a company and 
bought a claim at Yankee Hill, near Columloia, Tuol- 
umne County in January, 1853, from a miner who got 
the Australia fever and thought he could find better 
diggings there. They paid one ounce, or about $18, 
'for the claim with some tools thrown in. In February 
the}'' opened a cut in the side of a bank that had 
prospected poorly and had not been otherwise touched. 
Here they found a nugget weighing twenty pounds 
and seven ounces worth $4400 and two days afterward,* 
found another weighing seven and one-half pounds and 
worth $1600. 



A company of four Frenchmen were working a 
claim near Cherokee Flat and on New Year's Eve, 
1853, they uncovered, three feet below the surface, 
a decomposed quartz vein that had a seam of gold in 
the center two inches thick. Owing to the mining 
laws at that time allowing a citizen of the United 
States to jump and hold a discovery of this kind 
from a foreigner, they endeavored to keep the find a 
secret, and to do so, took into partnership a company 
of four Italians, who were working a claim a short 
distance above them. They worked on the seam at 
toight. Their frequent visits and sale of gold, at the 
store, finally awakened curiosity and when, in the 
latter part of January, they brought in and sold 
twenty-nine pounds of gold, they were followed by 
some of the Cherokee Flat miners and discovered. 
iThe usual wild rush followed. The eight foreigners 
armed themselves with guns, pistols and knives, and 
while two or thre£. worked the seam, the others stood 
guard and did not allow any one to come near. The 
seam was twenty-five feet long, from two to six inches 
wide and of irregular depth. Many wild stories of 
its richness were soon afloat, but it seems they took 
out $10,000 on one day and the amount extracted was 

134 



believed to be over $60,000. The owners were either 
unable or unwilling to talk English and tell what 
they actually did take out. These Sons of France 
and Italy soon departed for their sunny European 
homes with the fortune they dug in less than sixty 
days. 

"A drunken sailor for luck" was believed to be 
a truism by many miners during the Placer Mining 
Era and it had a good foundation to rest upon. 

During the ''fall of '49 and spring of '50," a 
sailor named Clark mined on Sandy Bar on the Mokel- 
umne Kiver and made weekly visits to a store at 
Mokelumne Hill to indulge in his favorite beverage, 
"Old Tom." He traversed a trail that went over the 
hills and across the gulches in a tortuous way. At one 
place it descended into and ascended out of the precip- 
itous sides of a gulch that was popularly known as 
''Steep Gulch." Starting for his cabin on the river 
one Sunday evening more than "three sheets in the 
wind" he descended into Steep Gulch and there stayed. 
He was unable, on account of not maintaining his equil- 
ibrium, to climb the ascending slope. He struggled in 
vain for some time, during which he loosened a quantity 
of earth and rocks. Finally, he dropped exhausted in 
the bed of the gulch and there slept all night. On 
awakening the next morning, sobered enough to under- 
stand his surroundings, he saw several chispas exposed 
to view in the dirt his scrambles of the night before 
had loosened from the bank. Taking out a claspknife 
he began crevicing and in a few hours found enough 
nuggets to fill a tin can the size of a quart measure. 
One piece that he found weighed 3V2 pounds. From 
a claim fourteen feet long and ten feet wide, he took 
out in a fortnight $70,000. 

Steep Gulch became famed as a Frenchman's 
treasure box. A small colony of them working on 

135 




136 



Middle and Big Bars of the Mokelumne River were 
the first to hear and take advantage of the sailor's 
discovery and many of them returned to La Belle. 
France with the wealth they dug from the banks of 
the gulch. It was a long remembered event in Mokel- 
umne Hill when the first thirty or forty of them 
departed for France. A boniface named Leger, gave 
a big dinner to the Frenchmen about the Hill and the 
quantity of wine that was drunk and the number of 
times the Marseillaise was sung was never equalled 
before nor since. As the stage could not take the 
number who were going away at one time, the party 
decided to go to Stockton on horseback, so they selected 
a captain and bought or borrowed enough horses and 
mules for each man to have a mount. Amidst great 
enthusiasm they departed and as quite a number of 
them had never been astride a horse before, their 
efforts at mounting and keeping in the saddle were 
extremely ludicrous. They arrived at Stockton after 
much mental distress, sore of body and sailed away 
with about a ton of gold. 

Steep Gulch continued to yield for a decade or 
more before it was finally worked out. In March, 1859, 
a Chileno mining there found a nugget weighing one 
and one-half pounds and worth over $300, while a com- 
pany of four Mexicans, in December, 1859, found in 
a bank of the gulch, a nugget weighing twenty-eight 
pounds worth over $6,000, which had escaped the 
delving of over a thousand other miners who had 
previously worked in the gulch. 

GOOD LUCK FOR JEWS 

The descendants of Abraham came to California in 
large numbers from every part of the globe in the '50s. 
They do not appear to have done any prospecting; any 
pioneering; made any discoveries or worked any 

137 




JEW PEDDLER OF THE 



His Four Degrees of Business 
1st. Mit a pack on his back 
2nd. Mit a horse and wagon 
3rd. Mit a store 
4th. Mit a bank or bankrupt 

138 



placers, but they were there with the goods as fast as 
new channels of trade were opened. 

A well known showman of that time was used to 
often remark, he could easily gauge the prosperity of 
a mining town by the number of Jewish storekeepers 
it maintained and the size of its Chinatown. 

It is stated that on hearing of a rush to a new 
mining excitement in the interior, a Jewish merchant 
ni San Francisco sent a relative to view the prospect 
and advise on the proposition of opening a store. A 
few days afterward he received a telegram from his 
relative, sent from a telegraph office, the nearest to 
the new diggings, reading: ''Come. It was richness." 
Such was the way they kept in touch with the move- 
ments of the mining population and they were soon on 
the spot with the necessary goods to feed, clothe and 
supply the heedless rushers. 

Many of the Jews amassed wealth and with their 
investments and their backing of experienced miners, 
gave material aid in developing the mining industry of 
the State. Many more would have gathered wealth had 
it not been for the frequency that the hastily built 
business sections of the mining towns were swept away 
hy fire. The names of the Jewish merchants were 
always amongst those of the heaviest losers. 

Numbers of these people soon developed into the 
most expert gold dust buyers in the State. It was 
seldom a rogue attempted to fool one of them with 
bogus dust. They could tell at sight from the color 
of the gold, its fineness and value per ounce, and 
besides that, they could invariably name the locality 
where it had been dug. To this fact was due the fol- 
lowing incident: The Iowa Hill express office was 
robbed one night of a large quantity of gold dust. 
Officers investigating the robbery w^ere unable to obtain 
a clew and after a few days' search concluded the 

139 



robbers had departed and might sell the gold dust else- 
where. Circulars were sent out all over the State giv- 
ing particulars of the robbery. 

A short time after this a communication was 
received from an El Dorado County gold dust buyer 
stating that a miner, claiming to be working in a 
ravine in El Dorado County, was selling small quan- 
tities of Iowa Hill gold dust mixed with that he mined 
in El Dorado County. The buyer knew it was Iowa 
Hill gold dust from its characteristics and fineness, and 
at the times he had bought it, he did not know of the 
robbery. This information led to the robber being 
traced, located and arrested. 



A Jew gold dust buyer in one of the mountain 
mining towns, from the frequency which stages were 
■being held up and robbed, surmised that it would not 
be long before the route by which he expressed his 
sack of gold dust, weekly, to the mint, would receive an 
unwelcome visit. He, therefore, instead of agreeing to 
share the heavy expense of sending armed guards with 
the express, figured out a plan of his own to save him- 
self from loss. He sent to San Francisco for several 
hundred pounds of lead bars. He held his gold dust 
shipments back for a month, then melted the quantity 
over a furnace and made it into a bar. This he incased 
in melted lead until it made an ingot, when cooled, that 
weighed over two hundred pounds. He placed it in an 
oilcloth pouch without any handles or straps. As he 
anticipated, the stage was stopped by two robbers 
and the express box rifled, but when it came to this 
bar, there was loud profanity. It could not be lifted, 
and as the men of the road had neither tools nor con- 
veyance to handle it, they were compelled to leave it. 

140 



GOOD LUCK FOR CHINAMEN 

The Chinese were early comers. Three arrived in 
February, 1848, and went to the mining section, and 
from this beginning, soon after the world heard of 
the discovery ^f gold in California, they began coming 
in hordes, by vessels, from Canton and Hong Kong. 
As soon as they arrived in San Francisco, they bought 
a pair of boots and loading their personal effects and 
tools in bundles tied upon the ends of a bamboo pole, 
they shouldered their burdens and trotted off to the 
inines. As they all seemed to move to different parts 
of the mining counties under direction, it was believed 
that some system of contract labor was bringing them 
here. One part of that agreement, which was faith- 
fully carried out, was the return of the bones of those 
dying in California to the Flowery Kingdom. After 
being buried three years the dead Chinaman w^as 
exhumed, his bones scraped, boxed and shipped. It 
4vas not long after they began coming before there 
was a commercial exchange between China and Cali- 
fornia of live Chinamen, rice and sugar from China 
with gold and dead Chinamen's bones from California. 
A deadly feud appeared to exist between those that 
came from Canton and those that came from Hong 
Kong. A number of pitched battles, with several hun- 
dred^ fighters on each side, were fought in different 
parts of the State, from Mariposa on the south to 
Weaverville on the north, resulting in the death of 
quite a few and the wounding of a large number. 
What it was about, "Melican man, no sabee." 

The Chinese were usually in companies of ten to 
thirty and in charge of a boss. They seemed to prefer 
buying and re-worldng old diggings rather than finding 
new. This was probably due to their fear of being 
disturbed in the possession of ground they did not buy 
to mine. They took to the rocker method of mining 
placers like a duck to water, while a line of sluice boxes 



141 




142 



appeared to be especially adapted to their use. They 
introduced the Chinese water wheel, also the bailing 
bucket, attached to ropes and manipulated by two men, 
to clear holes of water. By the use of these methods, 
they were able to work placers to bedrock, which the 
more impatient Caucasian would not tarry with, on 
account of too much water to contend with. 

The "Boss" was developed from a Chinaman who 
had learned to speak some English and had an educa- 
tion in Chinese. He apparently was not expected to 
labor hard, but took charge of the clean-ups and trans- 
acted the business of the company. 

One of the most intelligent and shrewd of these 
"Bossy Men" was a Chinaman, who called himself 
Ah Sam and who had a large company of coolies work- 
ing on Auburn Ravine, near Ophir, in 1856. 

In that year a partnership of six Americans, mining 
on the ravine, was dissolved. They had been mining 
for several years and occupied a log cabin built on a 
bank of the ravine. The cabin had a large mud and 
stone fire place at one end, with bunks arranged along 
the sides. The bunks were placed on posts about two 
feet from the ground. The cabin had a ground floor, 
which, as it frequently wore into small ridges, was made 
level again by removing the ridges, with a shovel, and 
the earth so removed was tossed beneath the bunks. 
On the day of their final departure. Ah Sam appeared 
at the cabin and proposed to buy it. He offered 
twenty-five dollars for it with the proviso they go to 
Ophir and before the justice of the peace there give 
him a bill of sale. "You give me paper, I pay," was 
his ultimatum. As it was like finding money, as these 
miners had no further use for the cabin, a bargain was 
struck. The next day, one of the miners having occa- 
sion to return to the cabin, found one side of it torn 
out and half a dozen of Ah Sam's coolies hard at work, 
removing the ground floor of the cabin to the depth of 



143 



three or four inches. They were carrying the dirt 
away in buckets to where a couple of rockers were 
being worked in the ravine, close by, and under 
Ah Sam's supervision the dirt was being washed. It 
then developed what the shrewd Mongolian had in 
view. It was the universal practice of placer miners 
to clean their gold dust at night before their fire places 
by placing it in a blower. This was a shallow piece 
of V-shaped metal with a rim turned up on three sides 
and narrowing to an unobstructed end at the other. 
The gold dust was placed in this blower and then gently 
shaken and blown upon with the breath to remove the 
fine particles of sand and dirt that adhered to it. It 
was thus cleaned before being offered for sale to the 
buyer. No matter how gently and carefully the cleaner 
would blow, there was sure to be some small particles 
of gold blown off with the sand, and the more careless 
or vigorous the miner would blow, the more gold dust 
would be blown out. 

Ah Sam had correctly surmised that these miners 
had left some wealth on the cabin floor and in the dirt 
tossed under the bunks. That from the many blov/ings 
they had made during their several years of placer 
mining much had been blown out, and he was secure 
with his bill of sale in the gathering- of it in. While 
it was current belief along the ravine that Ah Sam 
realized over $3,000 from his clean-up, he w^ould never 
acknowledge to over "tlee hundred dollah." 

A reason existed for Ah Sam to persistently lessen 
the amount of his estimated profit in the fact, as it 
vv^as afterward learned, that while he was busily engaged 
looking after his cabin floor investment and had his 
back turned on his claim in the ravine, two members 
of his company, working at shovelling into his sluice 
box line, half a mile distant, uncovered a nugget weigh- 
ing sixteen pounds and worth about $3,500. They con- 

144 



cealecl their find and surreptitiously left with it during 
the night. 

It was not until they had sold the lump in San 
Francisco and departecl for China, that Ah Sani 
learned of the incident. He burned Chinese candles 
and punk sticks in front of his cabin door until the 
next Chinese New Year. 

Ah Sam proved himself equal to any emergency 
during- the same year. Owing to the lack of combative 
qualities in the coolies, they often became victims of 
highwaymen and robbers, who found that a couple of 
armed men, meaning business, could easily conquer a 
score of Chinamen. By tying their tails or queues 
together, they could place them in a position where 
they could do no harm and be easily robbed. A 
Mexican essayed to rob Ah Sam's company, and while 
engaged in tying together with their tails, a number of 
the Chinamen, Ah Sam appeared and securing the Mex- 
ican's gun, captured him. He then had his crowd tie 
the Mexican 's hands and his feet with ropes, then sling- 
ing him on a bamboo pole in the same manner they 
tied and carried a pig, he was hoisted upon the shoul- 
ders of two Chinamen and a procession, headed by 
Ah Sam, started for Auburn about six miles away. 

In due time the would-be robber was triumphantly 
delivered to the sheriff's office in the courthouse. The 
prisoner was suffering intensely in his tied position, but 
his groans and moans gained no compassion from 
Ah Sam. 

As the laws of California would not consider the 
oath of a Chinaman binding and his evidence could not 
be accepted in any kind of a case, and in this case 
there was no other witness besides the Chinamen, there 
was nothing to be done but let the IMexican go free. 
He was liberated much against Ah Sam's vociferous 
''What for?" objections. 

145 




02 
O 



146 



GOOD LUCK FOR AN AMERICAN 

All the good luck in the '50s was not enjoj^ed by 
the miners. Many business and professional men took 
advantage of the opportunities offered to them and 
made fortunes quickly. 

One of these successful men was Judge Stephen J. 
Field, for many j^ears a Justice of the United States 
Supreme Court and who has Avritten his reminiscences. 
He arrived in San Francisco on December 28, 1849, 
without any definite idea of where he would go and 
what he would do. He ssljs: "Upon landing from the 
steamer my baggage consisted of tv\^o trunks. I could 
have carried one but not two. I had only $10 in my 
pocket and paid $7 to have my trunks taken to a room 
in an old adobe building on the west side of Ports- 
mouth Square. This room was 10x8 feet and had a 
bed in it. Two of my fellow passengers on the steamer 
engaged it with me for $35 a week. I slept on the 
floor and they on the bed. I probably had the best of 
it. The next morning I started out with $3 in my 
pocket. I hunted up a restaurant and ordered the 
cheapest breakfast I could get. It cost me $2. A 
solitarj^ dollar was, therefore, all the money I had, but 
I was in no way despondent over my financial condi- 
tion. It was a beautiful day, much like an Indian 
summer day in the East. News from the East was 
eagerly sought from all new comers and newspapers 
from New York sold for $1 a piece. 

''I had a bundle of them and seeing the price paid 
for such papers, I gave them to a fellow passenger, 
telling him he might have half of what he could sell 
them for. There were sixty-four copies and I received, 
to my astonishment, the next day, $32, he having sold 
them at $1 apiece. Nearly everything also brought a 
similar extravagant price. And this reminds me of 
an experience in chamois skins. 

147 



"Before I left New York, I purchased a lot of 
stationery and the usual attachments to a writing table, 
as I intended to practice law in California. The 
stationer learning that I intended to go to California 
said I ought to buy some chamois skins in which to 
wrap the stationer}- as they would be needed there to 
make gold dust bags of. Upon his suggestion I bought 
a dozen skins for $10. On emptying my trunk at 
Marysville, these chamois skins were, of course, ex- 
hibited^ and a gentleman calling at the tent, which I 
then occupied, asked me what I would take for them. 
I asked him what he would give and he replied at once, 
'An ounce apiece.' My astonishment nearly choked me, 
for an ounce was taken for $16 and at the mint for 
$18 and $19 in coin. I, of course, sold them and 
blessed the chamois hunter who brought the chamois 
down and the stationer who sold them to me. The pur- 
chaser of the skins made gold dust bags of them and 
made a profit of two ounces on each skin. 

"After taking my breakfast in San Francisco, I 
noticed a small building in the plaza near which a 
crowd was gathered. Upon inquiring, I was informed 
it was the court house. I at once went over to the 
building and on entering found Judge Almond of the 
San Francisco District holding what was Court of 
First Instance. 

"A case was on trial. To my astonishment I saw 
two of my fellow passengers, who had landed the night 
before, sitting on the jury. This seemed so strange I 
waited until the case was over and then inquired how 
it happened they were on the jury. They said they 
had been attracted to the building by the crowd just 
as I had been, and that while looking on the proceed- 
ings the sheriff had summoned them. They informed 
him they had just arrived, but the sheriff said that it 
made no difference, nobody had been in the country 
more than a few months. They also said they had been 

148 



paid $8 each for their services. At this piece of news, 
I thought of my solitary dollar and wondered if the 
same good fortune might not happen to me. I 
lingered in the court room, placing myself near the 
sheriff in the hope another jury would be called and 
he would summons me, but no such good luck came." 

He had a promissory note given by J. D. Steven- 
son, who Avas getting rich buying gold dust, to collect. 
It was for $440 and the colonel paid it, thus putting 
the judge in necessary funds and this enabled him to 
rent an office at the corner of ]\Iontgomery and Clay 
streets for $300 a month, paid in advance. He hung 
out his shingle as an attorney and in two weeks' time 
only one client had come in. This was a fellow-pas- 
senger Avho wanted a deed drawn up. The client was 
charged an ounce for the service, but kicked at the 
size of the fee and it was reduced one-half. He says 
he was not discouraged, as the stirring times about 
him kept him from feeling lonesome. He w^as then 
persuaded by an acquaintance to go to Vernon, a new 
town just coming into existence at the junction of 
the Sacramento and Feather rivers. He found the 
town consisted of one house, entirely surrounded by 
water from a January flood. It was no place for a 
lawyer. So he decided to go on to Nye's Ranch, near 
the' junction of the Feather and Yuba rivers. He 
says: "No sooner had the steamboat struck the land- 
ing than all the passengers, some forty or fifty in num- 
ber, as if moved by a common impulse, started for an 
old adobe building which stood on the bank of the river. 
It w^as surrounded by a large number of tents. Judg- 
ing by the number there must have been a thousand 
people there. When we reached the adobe and entered 
the front room we saw a map spread out upon the 
counter containing the plan of a town called Yuba- 
ville. 



149 



"A man behind the counter was calling out: 'Gen- 
tlemen, put your names down. Put your names down, 
all you who want lots.' He seemed to address himself 
to me and I asked him the price. He replied '$250 
each for 80x160 feet.' I asked: 'But suppose a man 
put his name down and then don't want the lots, 
what then?' His reply was: 'You don't have to take 
them if you don't want them.' I took him at his word 
and wrote my name down for sixty-five lots aggregat- 
ing in price $16,500. 

"This produced a great sensation. To the best of 
my recollection, I had only $20 in m^y pocket. It was 
at once noised around that a big capitalist from San 
Francisco was among them to invest in lots in "l-he 
rising town. 

"The consequence was that the promoters and 
proprietors of the town waited upon me and showered 
me with attention." 

He then suggested to the owners of the townsite 
that they organize a town government and elect a mag- 
istrate. He was invited to draw up the proper 
papers. A mass meeting was held and a local govern- 
ment organized. At the meeting, Judge Field an- 
nounced he would be a candidate for alcalde. The 
election took place the next day. An opposition can- 
didate developed and an exciting contest ensued. 

The main objection to the judge was his being a 
newcomer. He had been there only three days, while 
his opponent had been there six. Judge Field was 
elected by a majority of nine votes. His first case, 
on account of not having an office, was tried in the 
street. It was a dispute over the ownership of a horse. 
Both men claimed the horse and asked for a decision. 
After hearing the testimony of each man, he decided 
in favor of the one he considered owned the horse. 
Then the man who lost the case spoke up: "But the 
bridle belongs to me. He don't get the bridle does 

150 



he?" The judge replied: ''No, the bridle is another 
matter." Then the owner of the bridle ofitered to buy 
the horse from the owner of the animal and a sale was 
made for $250. 

The buyer then turned to Judge Field and said: 
''Now, Alcalde, I want you to draw me a bill of sale 
for this horse that will stick. ' ' It was done and 
Judge Field charged each man an ounce to pay for 
trying the case and drawing up the bill of sale. 

On the evening of the election, there was a gath- 
ering of people to get the result at the adobe house 
and on its being announced, somebody proposed that 
the town should be properly named. One man pro- 
posed "Yubafield;" another said, "Yubaville;" a 
third suggested "Circumdoro" (meaning surrounded by 
gold), but a fourth man, who was a substantial and 
solid-looking citizen in his prime and who had come 
to California to better his fortune, but still retained 
that feeling of gallantry toward the ladies that goes 
with the admirer of the fair sex, arose and stated that 
there was an American lady in the town, the w^ife 
of one of the proprietors. Her name was Mary, and 
in his opinion her name ought to be given to the 
town and in her honor he proposed the name of 
"Marysville." The suggestion was received with a 
whoop and loud hurrahs and it was so christened then 
and there. The lady was ]\Irs. Mary Covilland. She 
and her husband came to California in 1846 with the 
Donner party. 

Within ninety days Judge Field had paid for his 
lots; had $14,000 in gold dust in his safe and still 
'owned enough real estate to put him far ahead of 
the world. The money was made from the rapid 
rise of values of the town lots he had bought on tick. 

George C. Gorham, then a youth of seventeen, who 
afterward became prominent in State and National 
politics, was the alcalde's clerk during 1850. 

151 




152 



LUCK IN MINING EXCITEMENTS 

California's population during the '50s was a 
credulous, restless crowd, ready to follow the phantom 
of gold to any place where it was said to be in quan- 
tity and to be obtained through the simple effort of 
picking it up. 

There was first the Gold Lake excitement which took 
hundreds into the Feather River Sierras; then the 
Gold Bluffs with its golden sands on ocean beaches 
of the Northern California Coast. Then came the 
Kern River excitement and a dash of thousands to 
that fabulously rich section ; then the Fraser River 
rush took its thousands of believers North and the 
'50s ended Avith the great Washoe excitement. Besides 
these major arousements there was a flock of local 
ones that kept the avaricious prospectors journeying 
hither and thither to try their luck in the new diggings 
rumor was constantly spreading reports about. Greed 
sent hundreds away from well doing and where there 
ought to have been contentment to where hope and 
expectation unrealized, brought vexation and sorrow. 

One of the first local rushes was in January, 1851, 
to Coloma where gold was first found. A man named 
Hall sunk a well on his lot and finding pay dirt at 
the bottom panned out several hundred dollars in one 
afternoon. This started an excitement and rumor, 
exaggerating, as usual, the extent of the find, soon 
brought a motley crowd to the place. Judges, lawyers, 
doctors, merchants and all other occupations were 
represented by men with their coats off wielding 
picks and shovelling dirt on their locations digging 
down to the big pay streak. 

In March, 1853, a company of ten miners ran a 
tunnel into Mameluke Hill near Georgetown in El 
Dorado County. They struck a rich vein of quartz 
and in five days took out $75,000. Inside of a week 
over two thousand prospectors were on the hill or ad- 

153 



jacent thereto locating and starting a search for the 
hidden treasure. 

At Rough and Ready in May, 1851, was a great 
excitement. The ground on 2nd Street, which was 
laid out in town lots a short time previous showed rich 
prospects. A miner took a notion to prospect on a lot 
and obtained four bits to the pan. In an hour he 
got down to bedrock and obtained $1 to the pan. 

Like wildfire the news spread and miners poured 
in like a swarm of bees. A carpenter at work on a 
building nearby jumped the ground belonging to his 
employer and staked off a claim with his chisel and 
hand saw. One miner, on his way to his cabin with 
a supply of fresh meat just bought, was at night hold- 
ing his claim with his feet and the meat with his 
hands, afraid to let go of either. 



The discovery of the great Comstock Lode which 
brought into existence Virginia City, the enormous bo- 
nanzas, the enrichment of hundreds and the penury 
of thousands who speculated in its mining stocks, was 
the result of accident rather than design. The effect 
of the discovery on the business, political and social 
life of the country has been great and wide spread. 

In the fall of 1858 four men named James Finney, 
alias "Virginia," John Bishop, alias "Big French 
John," Alexander Henderson and John Tount were 
prospecting in the ravines eroded at the foot of Mt. 
Davidson. Getting short of provisions they made a 
visit to the Johntown trading store on the Emigrant 
road, some miles distant to obtain a winter supply. 

As they were passing along a trail on a ridge a'oove 
where Gold Hill is now located, "Virginia" turned to 
his companions and pointing to a large mound of earth 
below them remarked: "Boys, I think thar be gold 
in those diggings down thar and when we get back 
I'm going to prospect it." A few days after return- 

154 



mg from Johiitown with their supplies, they went over 
to the mound, headed by "Virginia." A fall of snow 
had occurred and covered the mound to a depth of 
several inches. Taking a shovelful of earth from the 
mound they washed it by melting snow in their hands 
and letting the water drip upon the dirt. From this 
vrashing they obtained a "color." 

This started "Virginia" to looking around for a 
favorable spot to make an opening. While walking 
about the mound, he stepped into a ground hog's hole. 
From the earth thrown out by this animal, they took 
a quantity down to a gulch, now known as Crown 
Point Ravine, where a small stream of water flowed. 
They panned their dirt there and found it to be 
rich in gold. Giving three cheers for their good luck, 
they then staked out four claims of fifty feet each, 
giving "Virginia" the first choice of location. 

A few days afterward, five other prospectors ap- 
peared. They had heard of the find and left Spanish 
Ravine where they were mining. They staked out 
claims. They were named James Rogers, Joseph Plato, 
Sandy Bowers, Henry Comstock and Wm. Knight. 
During the winter, that now set in, the weather was 
too severe to permit of much work being done, but a 
ditch was dug to bring water from Crown Point Ra- 
vine to near the locations. When spring opened they 
all proceeded to work their placer claims with rock- 
ers, little thinking of the immense treasure beneath 
their feet. Two men worked a rocker; one carrying 
the dirt in a bucket from the placer to the rocker while 
the other worked it with handle and dipper. They 
made from $10 to $25 a day in gold. During '59 
more miners arrived and locations began to change 
hands, as the extent of the discovery gradually became 
better knoAvn. "Virginia" gave John Vignot, alias 
"Little French John," nine feet of his claim for at- 
tending him through a spell of sickness. He sold 

155 



twenty-one feet to a miner named Durgan for $50 a 
foot and the remaining twenty feet to two brothers, 
named L. E. and J. W. Rice, for about the same price 
and then went off to prospect for better diggings. 

''Big French John" Bishop sold his claim to two 
miners named Logan and Holmes for $50 a foot. John 
Yount sold thirty feet of his claim to J. D. A¥inters 
and twenty feet to tw^o miners named Henderson and 
Bntler for $50 a foot and Alexander Henderson, the 
fourth miner in the first discovery, sold his to other 
parties for a stake large enough to satisfy him and 
start him for his "home" in the East. Of the second 
crowd that took up claims Rogers sold ten feet for 
$100 a foot to a Mrs. Cowan, who afterwards married 
Sandy Bowers and became known as the "Washoe 
Seeress. " She claimed to have the faculty of second 
sight and could see bonanzas hidden in the depths of 
the Comstock Lode far below the ken of human eyes. 
Rogers, subsequently became insane and committed 
suicide. Joseph Plato died and his wife inherited and 
held his claim, Sandy Bowers w^as the only one of all 
these original locators to become really rich from 
his holdings. Henry Comstock sold out to a miner 
named Frink, and Wm. Knight sold out to a com- 
pany, first called Harold & Co., and afterwards merged 
into the Empire Mill and IMining Company. 

Virginia City got its name from James Finney's 
sobriquet and, through some other freak of nomen- 
clature, the lode was named after Comstock. 

The first news of this great find published in 
California appeared in the Nevada City Transcript on 
July 1, 1859. It read as follows: "J. T. Stone, 
formerly of Alpha but now living on Truckee Meadows, 
has just arrived here and reports the discovery of 
a vein of ore of extraordinary richness at the head 
of Six Mile Canyon near Washoe Valley. The vein is 
four feet wide and is traced a distance '^f three and 

156 



one-half miles. The ore is decomposed and works 
easily. It is like that from which silver is sometimes 
obtained. The discovery was made by a miner work- 
ing- in Six Mile Canyon who found, as he worked his 
claim, the richer it became until he struck the vein. 
The news has created great excitement here." 

From this time it began to spread and soon a 
rush to Washoe from the Pacific Coast began. The 
rush to Washoe from California began in the summer 
of 1859 and grew rapidly until it was of stupendous 
proportions in the fall of that year. Previous rushes 
were to places where gold was said to be in pound 
quantities, but this was for silver by the ton and a 
nevv" condition entirely. These previous movements 
meant the labor of placer mining, here it required 
only the finding of a ledge. A writer made the trip 
in the fall of '59, hiking with others, from Placerville 
over the Sierras, then the most popular route, and his 
experiences well illustrate what the excitement and 
hardships of the journey meant to the thousands of 
Calif ornians who joined in the rush. He wrote: ''On 
my arrival in Placerville, I found the whole town in 
commotion. There was not an animal to be had at 
any of the stables without leaving an order three days 
ahead. The stage for Strawberry had made its last 
trip in consequence of bad roads. Every hotel and 
restaurant was full to overflowing. The street was 
blocked with crowds of people going to Washoe. The 
gambling and drinking places were crowded to suffo- 
cation. The clothing stores were covered with plac- 
ards offering goods at a sacrifice to Washoe miners. 
The grocery stores were filled with boxes, bags and 
bundles made up for the Washoe trade. The stables 
were constantly starting off passenger and pack trains 
for Washoe. Mexican vaqueros were driving head- 
strong mules through the town bound for Washoe. In 
short, there was nothing but Washoe seen or heard 

157 




158 



or thought of. Any man who wanted a fortune 
needed only to get there and pick it up. John Smith 
made $10,000 swapping shares; Tom Jones made $20,- 
000 by right of discovery and Bill Browii $J-0,000 run- 
ning a tavern. Everybody was getting rich hand over 
fist. It was the place to go for a fortune. 

I went to bed, but who could slumber in such a 
bedlam where hundreds of crack-brained people kept 
rushing up and down the passageway all night and out 
of every room banging the doors after them ; calling 
for bootjaclvs, carpet sacks, cards, cocktails and toddies 
while amid this ceaseless din arose ever and anon that 
potent cry 'Washoe' which had unsettled every head. 

The first day out, night overtook us at a place called 
'Dirty IMike's. ' Here w^e found a ruinously delapi- 
dated frame shanty, the bar, of course, being the main 
feature. Next to the bar was the public bedroom in 
which w^as every accommodation except beds, bedding, 
bedsteads, tables, chairs and wash stand, that is to say, 
there was a piece of looking glass nailed against the 
window frame and the public comb and hair brush hang- 
ing by strings from a neighboring post. A verj^ good 
supper of pork and beans, fried potatoes and coffee 
was served us on very dirty plates by 'Mike's' cook. 
After doing it justice, we turned in our blankets to 
sleep. The place w^as all right if 'Mike' would w^ash 
his face and his plates at least twice a week. 

In almost a continuous line the Washoeites 
stretched out like a great snake dragging its slow 
length along as far as the eye could see. In the 
course of the second day of tramping, we passed 
parties of every description. Irishmen wheeling their 
blankets, provisions and tools on wheelbarrows; Amer- 
icans, Frenchmen and Germans on foot, leading heav- 
ily-loaded horses or carrying their packs on their 
backs and their picks and shovels across their 
shoulders; Mexicans were d^'ving long trains of 

159 




ON THE WxVSHOE TRAIL 
160 



pack animals and swearing fearfully to keep them 
in line; dapper-looking gentlemen from San Francisco 
on livery stable horses; women in men's clothing, 
mounted on horses, mules and burros; Pike County 
specimens, seated on piles of furniture and goods in 
great lumbering wagons; whiskey peddlers with their 
bar fixtures and supply on mule back, stopping now 
and then to quench the thirst of the toiling multitude; 
organ grinders carrying their organs ; drovers driv- 
ing, raving and tearing away frantically through 
brush and timber after droves of self-willed cattle 
designed for Washoe slaughter; in short, every imag- 
inable class and every species of industry was repre- 
sented. 

It was a striking and impressive spectacle to see 
in full competition with youth and strength the piti- 
able efforts of the aged and the sick, dragging their 
tired limbs and gasping for breath in this mad race 
for avarice. 

I met a stranger bound from Washoe. He had only 
been there a couple of months and had made a con- 
siderable pile. He confidentially advised me to get 
a grindstone and take it over. There w^as only one 
grindstone in Washoe, he had got hold of it, rigged it, 
and was making $30 to $50 a day sharpening tools. 
Now% nothing was left of the grindstone and he was 
on his w^ay to Placerville to get a supply. 

The winter road for wheel vehicles ended at Straw- 
berry. The rain poured down heavily, making slush 
and for twelve miles below Straw^berry every wagon 
was stuck in the mud. Dark and raining it w^as when 
we arrived and there were crowds scattered around 
the house as if they had some secret and possible en- 
joyment in the contemplation of the wreath er. Edging 
our way through, we found the barroom packed as 
closel}^ as it could be without bursting out one of 
the walls and of all the motley gangs that ever hap- 

161 



penecl together within a space of twenty feet this 
certainly was the most extraordinary. Gentlemen with 
slouched hats and big boots; Jew peddlers dripping 
wet; red-shirted miners, teamsters, vacpieros, packers 
and traders, swearing horribly at nothing; some warm- 
ing themselves before a tremendous log fire that sent 
up a reeking steam from the conglomerated mass of 
wet and muddy clothes to say nothing of the boots 
and socks that lay simmering near the coals. A few 
bare and sorefooted outcasts crouched down in the 
corners, trying to catch a nap and here and there 
a returned Washoeite described in graphic 'language, 
garnished with oaths, the wonders and beauties of 
Virginia City. Chiefly remarkable in the crowd was 
the hungry horde pressed in double file against the 
dining room door awaiting the fourth charge at the 
supper table. At the first tinkle of the bell the door 
was burst open with a tremendous crash and for a 
moment no battle scene of Waterloo or Crimea, with 
troops dealing death and destruction around them 
could have equalled the onslaught of this famished 
brigade. The whole house actually tottered and 
trembled at the concussion as if shaken by an earth- 
quake. Long before the main body had assaulted 
the table the din of arms was heard above the general 
uproar. The deafening clatter of knives, forks and 
plates; the battle cry of 'Waiter!' 'Waiter!' 'Pork and 
beans!' 'Sausages !'' Ham and Eggs!' 'Quick waiter, 
for God's sake,' made a scene of destruction and mas- 
tication long to be remembered. When the table was cle- 
serted, it presented a shocking scene of desolation. 
AVhole dishes were swept of their contents; coffee pots 
were drained to their dregs; knives, forks, plates and 
spoons lay in a confused mess among the remnants of 
the meal; chunks of bread and biscuits were scattered 
over the tables and floor; teacups and saucers upset 
and the waiters hot, red and steaming, were panting 

162 



and swearing after their strenuous labor and began 
the work of arranging for the fifth engagement which 
followed within a half hour. A sixth was fought 
before all were fed. I was too late to secure a bed 
in the general bedroom or 'corral' where two hundred 
and fifty tired travelers were already snoring in 
double-shotted bunks, 2x6, but, the landlord was a 
man of inexhaustible resources. A private whisper in 
his ear made him a friend forever. He nodded saga- 
ciously and led me into a small parlor, about 15x20, 
in which he gave five of us what he called a 'lay out'. 
A 'lay out' is on the floor with your own blankets for 
a bed. This was a special favor and I would have 
cherished it in my memory for years had not a sus- 
picion been aroused in my mind before the lapse of 
half an hour, that there w^ere others in the confidence 
of the host. Scarcely had I entered on my first nap, 
when somebody undertook to walk on me. I grasped 
him firmly by the leg. The intruder 1 found was a 
Jew peddler. He offered me a cigar in apolog3^ which 
I smoked in token of amity. When daylight broke 
I cast around me to see what everybody was doing to 
cause so much commotion. I perceived there were 
about forty sleepers getting up. Boots, strongly- 
scented feet and socks were to be seen in every direc- 
tion; blankets, packs of clothes, shirts and I know 
not what else all scattered about. When I arose the 
Jew peddler was gone and so were my socks. They 
were not very valuable, not very clean, but still they 
were a pair of socks, an article hard to get on the 
road to Washoe." 



GOOD LUCK OF GAME HUNTERS 

The foothills and Sierras of California were alive 
in the '50s with game birds and animals. Among 
the miners were many Nimrods, Avho frequently pre- 

163 



ferred to slioot a bag of quail or tackle the massive 
grizzly bear, than mine. To this love of sport are 
some rich discoveries due. 

Major William Downie was one of the most in- 
trepid and persistent prospectors that ever tramped 




MORNING BATTLE AT STRAWBERRY OVER THE LOST 
SOCKS ^' CLAIM 

over the Sierra Mountains in quest of gold. He ar- 
rived in San Francisco in 1849 and worked his way, 

164 



b}^ row boat and other methods of transportation, to 
Marj^sville, where he became imbued with the belief 
from seeing the nuggets found in the nearby bars 
on the Yuba River were worn smooth, that the source 
of supply of the gold was in the higher Sierras. He 
was enthused with the impression that if this source 
could be reached, the gold there would be found in 
big, rugged lumps as heavy as a man could lift and 
in prodigious quantity. With this object in view, he 
organized a company of a dozen or more composed 
of a Kanaka, w^ho afterwards gave the name to 
Kanaka Creek, a Mexican or two, several negroes and 
some of other nationalities and proceeded up the 
North Fork of the Yuba River, prospecting the 
bars and ravines where a white man had never been 
before. Wherever the gold found was worn smooth 
and showed it had been carried far from its place of 
origin, the major did not loiter but kept on his way, 
until they finally reached the locality where Downie- 
ville, named after him, is built. Here he thought he 
had found the object of his search. While gold was 
taken here from the placers in pound quantities, the 
major never made and kept the fortune he sought 
and after spending nearly a decade mining in Sierra 
County he was oft' to Cariboo in '58 and it was said he 
prospected the farthest North any miner had gone 
in the '60s. The reports ' of the discoveries made by 
this party going up the Yuba River, produced in 
1850, a rush of miners up that stream that soon 
brought into existence the prosperous mining towns 
of Downieville, LaPorte, Gibsonville. Chips Flat and 
others that flourished for a decade or more. 

One Sunday morning in June, 1856, Major Downie 
walked over the ridge of a hill on Slate Creek and 
while obtaining a view of the surrounding country, 
he, carelessly, dislodged with his foot, a quartz 
boulder about the size of a man's head which was 



165 







166 



half buried in the earth. As it rolled a few feet 
away the major gave it only a moment's notice and 
any impulse he may have had to examine it passed 
quickly away. A small bowl-shaped hole was left in 
the ground where the boulder was pushed from. 

About a month afterward a Chileno, who was 
mining on Slats Creek, went for a quail shoot on this 
ridge and near the top shot a quail that fell wounded 
into the bowl-shaped hole left by the boulder the 
Major had kicked out of his way. In its dying flut- 
terings the quail disturbed the earth on the sides of 
the little hole and wlien the Chileno hunter picked 
it up he saw a small piece of gold about an inch long 
and of the thickness of a slate pencil, sticking out of 
the dirt. Finding it adhering to a piece of quartz he 
removed the small boulder with his ramrod and took 
it to Downieville in the evening. It weighed about 
three pounds and an assayer obtained from it nearly 
a pound of gold worth about $200. This was all the 
Chileno obtained from his find. 

His streak of good luck becoming known, the next 
morning, miners who knew something about quartz, 
were early on the ridge; found a rich ledge and the 
whole hill was soon covered with prospectors and loca- 
tions. The hill proved to be ribbed with rich quartz 
veins and half a hundred miners made the fortunes 
there they came to California to seek. Major Downie 
often lamented his ill-luck and always maintained that 
if he had been looking for a quartz ledge instead of 
a stray son of a jackass on that Sunday morning in 
June, he would have found the fortune he momen- 
tarily stood upon. 

A man named Rasberry went hunting quail in 
October, 1856, near Angel's Camp, Calaveras County. 
He used a double-barreled, muzzle-loading shotgun 
and was shooting an inferior grade of gun powder, 

167 



wliich, after a few hours of shooting, so fouled his 
gun barrels, that his ramrod, on driving down a 
wad in one of them, got stuck and could not be with- 
drawn. After trjdng in vain several different ways of 
getting it out, he concluded to shoot the ramrod into 
a patch of soft mud, made by a spring that oozed out 
of the side of a hill. Tying his handkerchief to the 
protruding end of his ramrod so that he could follow 
its flight and locate it after it struck, he fired his 
gun. With the usual obstinate persistency when things 
are going Avrong, the ramrod took an upward and 
sidelong flight and struck in a small manzanita bush 
about fifty feet away from the marshy ground he 
had aimed at. Rasberry, after expressing his feelings 
in words of profane emphasis, went to the spot he 
saw his ramrod hit and found it partly imbedded in 
the roots of the manzanita bush. He pulled the bush 
out of the ground, roots and all, and when reaching 
for his ramrod, he noticed a small piece of quartz held 
in the roots of the manzanita bush. With a miner's 
experienced eye, he examined the quartz and found 
it contained gold. He began digging, with his ram- 
rod, into the small hole he had made and soon dis- 
closed a quartz vein. With his pocket knife he ex- 
tracted that afternoon quartz that yielded him $700. 
The next day, with proper tools, he took out ten 
pounds of gold worth over $2000 and on the third day 
he got out thirty-three pounds worth $7000. He con- 
tinued to work the vein for several months and other 
miners who made locations adjacent shared in his 
good luck. 

Near Pilot Peak, fifteen miles north of Downie- 
ville, in 1855, a Frenchman went hunting with a Mex- 
ican. While creeping upon a grouse that he heard 
drumming in a tree, through excitement, he acci- 
dently discharged his gun and the charge struck a 

1G8 



small quartz rock on the hillside about ten feet away 
The rock rolled down the hill and fell at the feet 
of the Mexican standing in the ravine below. As it 
struck it broke in two. While the boulder showed the 
effects of shot, it also showed gold in its fractured 
ends. The hunters took it to Pine Grove, a minino- 
camp near by and sold it for $90. The find started 
a number of miners from Pine Grove to seek the ledge 
the piece of quartz was broken from and they found 
it. It w^as one of great richness. 



John Minear, of Sonora, hunting in the mountains 
in the eastern part of Tuolumne County in October, 
1858, killed a grizzly bear. It rolled down the steep 
declivity of a hill and stopped against a ledge of rock 
that w^as covered with moss and concealed by a growth 
of live oak trees. While skinning the grizzly, he 
noticed a piece of quartz, which the^bear had loosened 
from the ledge with his last kicks, lying nearby and 
picked it up. It contained a seam of gold and an 
examination of the ledge showed it to be quartz of 
astonishing richness. It proved to be a continuation 
of the famous Buchannan Lode that became noted for 
the fortunes it contained. 

GOOD LUCK FOR NEWCOMERS 

The axiom that Good Luck is being in the right 
place at the right time seems to be exemplified by that 
which fell occasionally upon newcomers during the 
Placer Mining Era. 

The first mention of Good Luck to newcomers is 
in Marysville in August, 1850, where it was published 
that James A. Wilkins, the Stillman Brothers and 
Rodney Churchill from Lowell, Massachusetts, of a 
party of nine who left Marysville in June, 1850, to 
mine on Tuscaloosa Bar on the Feather River, had 

169 



returned and were homeward bound. In four weeks 
the party had taken out of the bar $75,000 in gold 
dust and divided $8000 " apiece. 



In the early '50s a young attorney from an eastern 
state arrived at Mokelumne Hill. Uncertain what to 
do, on the day after his arrival, he took a walk around 
to look about the new country he was in. He finally 
reached a place called Corral Flat, near the town, 
where rich ground had been found and a large 
number of miners were at work. He wore a stovepipe 
hat, the headgear to which all professional men were 
partial at this period. As he approached, two miners 
who w^ere in an angry dispute over the boundary lines 
of their claims stopped arguing for a moment and one 
of them hailed him with the inquiry: "Are you a 
lawyer?" Answering in the affirmative, the two miners 
agreed to arbitrate their case and accept the decision 
as final. His decision must have been on the King 
Solomon order, for they accepted it, and then in the 
free-handed manner things were done in these times, 
they formed a partnership and offered him a third 
interest in the combined claim, if he would help mine 
it. Not daunted, he removed his stovepipe hat and 
coat and under their direction dug and worked a 
rocker with them and cleaned up nearh^ $8000 as his 
share. 

In July, 1850, W. H. Julius from New York, met 
John Grives from New Orleans; both just arrived at 
Marysville. They made an agreement to go up the 
Yuba River and mine. They went to the Jim Crow 
Diggings and there found a hole dug by some miners 
ahead of them, who, on reaching the water level, had 
abandoned the claim. A sight survey suggested to 
them that by digging a ditch about fifty feet in length 
and deep enough, the hole could be drained and the 

170 



claim worked. They went to work and dug the ditch. 
The rush of water from the hole, when tapped, swept 
much dirt from the sides of the ditch, widening it coji- 
siderably and Avhen the ffow subsided, one of the two 
saw a piece of gold sticking out of the side of the 
ditch a few feet from the hole. Jumping into the 
ditch, he took his large clasp knife and began digging 
the piece of gold out. The more he dug the larger 
grew the nugget and the greater became his excite- 
ment. He finally extracted a thirty-pound nugget 
worth over $6000. They immediately returned to 
Marj^sville, where their find caused quite a furore 
among the expectant immigrants and miners and the 
nugget was placed on exhibition in a room of the 
Sutter Hotel with a charge of fifty cents a look. They 
decided to take the nugget East and exhibit it in the 
large cities at an admission price and left IMarysville 
a few days afterward for that purpose. Their sojourn 
in California was less than thirty da^s. 



A young man named Tisdale arrived from Toronto, 
Canada, in October, 1851. He desired to mine and 
went to Marysville to make his start for the diggings, 
but without having any definite idea where he would go. 
He got into a conversation with a miner who offered to 
sell him part of a claim he owned in "Pinch 'Em 
Tight" Diggings not far from Marysville. The name 
took his fancy and for no other reason did he pay 
the few hundred dollars the miner asked for the claim. 
He returned to Marysville in April, 1852, on his 
way home with $36,000 in gold his claim had paid 
in the few months he had worked in it. 



A middle-aged lady arrived at the Tremont Hotel, 
Marysville, in 1852, and expected to be met by a rela- 
tive there. Much distressed by his non-appearance, she 
told the proprietor of the hotel that she was en route 



171 



to Downieville; was financially distressed, the expenses 
she had to meet en route being greater than she had 
expected them to be and her relative not coming, made 
it necessary for her to appeal to him for aid. She de- 
sired the loan of $20 to reach her destination. Some- 
what dubious, the hotelman loaned her the money. 
About a month afterward she returned and meeting 
her creditor, with a smiling face, she exclaimed: "Oh! 
I've been successful and have come to pay my debt." 

She had met her relative at Downieville and he 
built a canvas-covered house, fitted it with a stove, 
dishes, a long table and benches, and started her, with 
about thirty boarders at $12 a week, in a boarding 
house venture. The house had a ground floor and 
one day while sweeping it, she noticed the glitter of 
gold. On examination she found it was from a nugget 
and carcfally searching she found a few more. She 
at once told her relative of the find and there were 
no more meals served. They moved out the fixtures 
and proceeded to mine the premises. The first day 
they washed out $500 and the succeeding days were all 
equally as good. She was now returning to her former 
home in the East with the wealth her boarding house 
venture had left her no ground to complain about. 



Near Kelsey, El Dorado County, in March, 1857, 
an immigrant who had that day arrived from the 
East, being full of curiosity over gold mining and de- 
siring to learn how to do it, went to where a number 
of miners were at work in a claim. In order to watch 
more closely the miner who was panning the day's 
clean up from the sluice boxes, he seated himself upon 
a pile of tailings. Noticing a quartz cobble about the 
size and shape of an ostrich egg in the tailing pile, he 
picked it up. He was surprised to see a little bead of 
gold sticking out of the side and he took it to a store- 
keeper in the place, who pounded it up, in a hand 

172 



mortar. It was found to be a shell of quartz contain- 
ing a yolk of gold weighing over two pounds and 
worth nearly $500. 

II. Cohn, of St. Louis, Sierra County, in December, 
1858, bought a four-pound nugget from a man who 
had been in California only a week, for $775. He 
dug it in Illinois Canon near Poker Flat. It had 
several pick marks upon it showing it had been struck 
a number of times with pick points by other miners 
who did not find it. 

At Butte City, near Jackson, Amador County, 
a young man just arrived across the plains in Sep- 
tember, 1857, applied to a company of miners for 
work. They were developing a quartz ledge and 
sinking an incline. On account of the foul air therein, 
from blasting with powder, they determined before 
doing any drifting or cross-cutting to have a ventilat- 
ing shaft sunk. The "greenhorn" was put to work 
doing the preliminary work on the ventilating shaft 
and after working half an hour and getting clown 
a few feet he dug out a nugget weighing over four 
pounds and worth $900. A dispute arose as to whom 
it belonged. The employers claimed it because the 
employee found it, but, it being ascertained the ventil- 
ating shaft was a few feet off their claim, the decision 
was in favor of the finder keeping it. 



In January, 1857, a young man arrived at So- 
nora from the East looking for a relative who was 
mining near that town. He was directed to go to a 
certain gulch a few miles distant, but, through his un- 
familiarity with the country he got off the right trail 
and went up the wrong gulch. In making his way 
along its uneven bed, it became necessary for him to 
cross over a pile of tailings that had been thrown from 

173 



a long torn. In attempting to cross he lost his foot- 
ing in the loose pile of rocks and gravel and had to 
make a scramble to get to the top, using both hands 
and both feet in doing so, thereby disturbing a large 
portion of the pile. When he got on the top and 
looked down at the trench he had made, he saw in its 
center a nugget -weighing three pounds and worth 
over $600. It had been pitchforked out of the long 
tom by some careless miner some years before and was 
evidently waiting for a lucky finder. 



In Columbia, Tuolumne County, there arrived in 
May, 1857, two young men from New York City. 
They were typical Fire Jakies. One of them was 
suffering from burns received while fighting a fire a 
few days before the steamer sailed, and still kept his 
leg bandaged. He was unable, and perhaps unwilling 
as well, to engage in any kind of hard labor and his 
companion was equally indisposed to work hard. They 
loitered around the town until they had spent all 
their funds, exhausted their credit and by these cir- 
cumstances compelled to make a move. An acquain- 
tance advised them, as they were down to bed rock, 
to get out and dig, offering to furnish them with a 
pick, shovel and pan to do it with. They concluded 
to take his advice and asking him to direct them which 
way to go, he pointed to a trail leading over a hill and 
told them to follow it until they came to the cabin of 
a miner whom they knew and who would further in- 
struct them. On their way, the injured man found 
it necessary to stop and adjust the bandage around 
his leg. While doing so, his companion took a shovel- 
ful of grass roots from the bank on which he was sit- 
ting and carried it in the pan to the gulch and washed 
it out. He found a "color," the first he had ever 
seen in his life and brought forth by his own efforts. 
He then proceeded to sink a hole to the bedrock, but 

174 



at a depth of three feet, he uncovered a nugget that 
weighed over an ounce. He then took a pan of dirt 
and washed it. There was five and a half ounces 
of gold in it. They then returned to town, sold enough 
gold dust to buy supplies and necessary tools and went 
back to work their claim. They dug $12,000 worth 
of gold from this bank in the next eight days and 
then started back to New York City. 



In November, 1855, two young men from the East, 
took passage on the stage from Sacramento, going to 
Downieville, where a friend they had known in the 
East lived. 

A heavy storm prevailed, streams were running at 
flood heights, bridges washed away and they stopped 
at Auburn to wait for the fury of the storm to subside. 
They had bought blankets and tools to take wdth them. 
They loitered around Auburn several days, spending 
their time in the saloons ; finally taking hands in a poker 
game, in which they were cleaned out and were broke 
about the time the storm broke. They concluded to 
walk back to Sacramento, there get employment and 
recoup. An acquaintance advised them to take their 
tools and prospect on the way back. They started in 
the early morning carrying their blankets, a pick, 
shovel and pan. About two miles out on the Sacra- 
mento road they stopped at a small ravine that crossed 
the road and was running a big head of w^ater. They 
commenced ground sluicing as a chance and in a 
short time washed out a pocket of nuggets, one of 
w^hich weighed three pounds and they returned to 
Auburn that evening with $980 worth of gold. 



All the finds of newcomers were not examples of 
Good Luck. One in particular was not. In 1857 
a young immigrant took possession of an abandoned 
claim at Butte City, in Amador County. He began 

175 



ground sluicing a bank and in about an hour there 
came into view the heel and sole of a boot. Surprised 
at seeing such an article washed out of a bank he was 
expecting to find only gold in, he took hold of the 
boot to remove it into view when he found he had hold 
of the leg of a man. He washed into view the body 
of the original owner of the claim who had disap- 
peared two years before and was supposed to have 
gone in search of better diggings. Instead of his 
doing that, he had been caved upon and killed, but 
being a newcomer, was a stranger and had no acquain- 
tances to miss him. 

GOOD LUCK IN TOWNS 

The towns of Sonora, Columbia, IMokelumne Hill, 
Auburn, Placerville, Nevada City, Downieville, Oro- 
ville, Shasta, Yreka and many others of lesser note, 
were built upon and surrounded by rich placers. They 
were not laid out and built according to any definite 
plan. Like Topsy, they "just growed." Starting 
from the pioneer trading store, the streets followed 
the trails made by the miners coming to trade. Dur- 
ing the '50s these towns were frequently swept by 
fires and in washing the ashes and cinders to recover 
coins and jewelry left in the flames, the owners of 
the town lots often found they had pay dirt on their 
premises. 

Sonora was a town most prolific of such events. 
It is told that a man leading a mule attached to a 
'cart up the main street one morning, after a rain in 
the '50s, stooped to remove a stone out of the way and 
found he had hold of a nugget weighing thirty-five 
pounds and worth $7500. 

In June, 1853. after a fire, a number of men were 
removing a pile of rocks from a lot on the main street 
of Sonora, when one of them picked up a nugget 

176 



weighing three and a half pounds and worth $700. 

A man removing the debris from his lot, also on 
Main Street, picked up a five and a half pound nugget 
worth $1200, and a IMexican, washing the ashes from 
his lot on Washington Street, to find coins left in the 
fire, found a six-pound nugget worth $1300. A man 
named Rudolfson, on a lot near the center of the 
town, picked up a lump of quartz and gold which he 
sold for $450. In October, 1859, behind Gorham and 
Company's store on Washington Street, a pound and 
a half nugget was dug out near the back door. 

On a Sunday afternoon in January, '56, a Mex- 
ican, after a heavy shower, found a small quartz 
boulder in an alley off the main street in Sonora 
that showed a speck of gold. In a hurry for money 
he sold it to General George S. Evans for $25. It 
yielded $378. 

A miner named Kelly washed out his lot at the 
north end of ]\Iain Street, Sonora, in 1859, and found 
lumps weighing seven and a quarter, three and several 
from one-half to two and one-half pounds in weight. 

On February 8, 1857, a heavy rainstorm prevailed 
which caused Sonora 's Creek to raise six feet, which 
was high water mark then. A citizen standing at the 
rear door of Wells Fargo & Compar.y's office watching 
the flood, looked down at an eddy near the bottom of 
the door steps and saw the glitter of gold. The 
dirt had been washed away from around a six-pound 
nugget and he was over $1200 richer for loitering 
around that place. 

The town of Placerville was almost totally de- 
stroyed by fire July 7, 1856. 

One of those to lose his house and personal effects 
was a man named L. A. Norton. He lost a sum of 
money consisting of gold and silver coins of various 
denominations; also some jewelry and to recover these 

177 



from the ashes and cinders, he decided to sluice the 
ground. He obtained a head of water for the pur- 
pose from Hangtown Creek and began operations. He 
not only found, with this method, all the valuables 
he had lost in the fire, but that the ground was full 
of nuggets. He gathered from the washing of the 
dirt and the bed rock crevices he scraped, enough gold 
to not only rebuild on his property, but to erect three 
other houses. 

Probably the youngest prospector and smallest in 
size to make a good luck find was little Sammy Tim- 
mons, who in March, 1858, was four years old and liv- 
ing in Placerville. His mother sent him out to play 
in the back yard and child-like, in imitation of his 
grown up seniors, he let his imagination play he was 
a miner. When called in by his mother, he came lug- 
ging a quartz boulder almost too heavy for him to 
toddle with, which he had uncovered in his diminu- 
tive mining operations. It contained nearly $200 worth 
of gold. 

Frank Anderson, a young man mining on Good- 
year Bar, took a stroll up the Yuba River on Sep- 
tember 14, 1849, and went as far as the forks where 
Downieville was afterwards built. He found the gold 
so plentiful that he could separate it from the sand 
washing it in his hands. It Avas probably as rich a 
placer as was ever found in the State. The next day 
he and three others panned out thirty pounds of gold 
in three hours, amounting to over $6000. A company 
of miners called the Jerseymen took out thirty pounds 
a day for forty days and would have had a ton of 
gold,*^ if the flood had not driven them out of the 
river bed. That the ground upon which the town 
Avas built was good placer diggings goes without say- 
ing. 

179 



A number of miners out of work in September, 
1859, took a contract to dig out a large cellar under 
Givin's corner on Main and Commercial Streets, 
Downieville, for $250 and the dirt they took out. 
It took them twenty days to do the digging and they 
made about $2 a day apiece from the job, but the dirt 
was a rich paying proposition. They washed over 
an ounce a day to the man and made about as much 
out of the cellar dirt as the lot and its building were 
considered worth. 

In Mokelumne Hill on a Sunday morning in No- 
vember, 1858, after a heavy rain storm, a lady on her 
way to church, picked up a nugget weighing about 
four ounces. It was found near the church door. Ac- 
tuated by a religious impulse she dropped it into 
the contribution plate, which caused the minister to 
rise to the occasion and remark that it was not sinful 
to look for gold on the Lord's Day, provided what 
was found was given to the service of the Lord. He 
also reminded his congregation that after a heavy 
rainstorm nuggets, like mushrooms, were more plentiful 
than at any other time. 



In January, 1859, a miner out of curiosity, pros- 
pected the dirt on Montgomery Street in the town of 
Oroville and found it showing thirty cents to a pan. 
This is the principal street in the town and an excite- 
ment followed with the locating of claims and prepara- 
tions to work them that threatened to tear the street 
out by its roots. 

At Placerville, in 1851, a man named Pile had a 
blacksmith shop with a small space of ground in the 
rear on the bank of Hangtown Creek. His little 
daughter, with a wash basin, amused herself after 
school hours washing dirt from the bank and inside 

180 



of two months had accumulated over two pounds of 
gold dust worth over $400. 

Chickens were persistent gatherers of small nuggets 
in these mininof towns and their gizzards were regu- 
larly searched by the cooks who prepared them for the 
oven. 

At Diamond Springs in 1856 one was killed for a 
Sunday dinner whose gizzard panned out $12.80. 



The ''Pickers" was a generic name applied, as 
early as 1850, to a number of men who developed into 
a class too lazy to work a placer; who loafed around 
the mining camps, a sort of tinhorn sporting men, 
until a heavy rainstorm came along. Then, with a pan 
and sheath knife they searched the crevices and rocks 
the rushing streams, pouring down the hillsides in 
and about these placer mining towns washed clean, 
picking out the nuggets, little and big, to be found 
there. One Sunday in November, 1851. a gold buyer 
in Mokelumne Hill purchased over $500 worth of gold 
dust from these "Pickers." 

In February, 1852, a "Picker" in Sonora found 
in two daj^s one nugget weighing five and one-half, 
one, four and one-half and three weighing one-half 
pounds each and received over $2400 for his easy 
labor. 

One day in November, 1852. the "Pickers" in So- 
nora found in the gulleys of that town a three and 
one-half pound nugsret and two others that were one- 
half pound in weight. At Columbia on the same day 
a "Picker" found an eight-pound nuorget. 

In January, 1852, one found a two and one-half 
'pound nugget on Broadway. Columbia, and in No- 
vember, 1854, a "Picker" found in a street of Sonora 
a quartz boulder weighing seventeen pounds that con- 

181 



^tained eight pounds of gold, worth $1700. As late as 
March, 1857, a nugget weighing one and one-half 
pounds was found by a lady in Sonora in the street 
in front of her home after a heavy rainfall. 

GOOD LUCK OF "GREENHORNS" vs. 
"SMART ALECKS" 

Along about '53, the miners who had come to Cali- 
fornia in the ''fall of '49 and spring of '50," began 
to designate the immigrants coming then to mine, who 
had never seen a chispa or a sluice box ''Greenhorns." 

Among the pioneers were a number, in every min- 
ing camp, who delighted in filling the minds of the 
credulous immigrants with extravagant tales of imag- 
inary accumulations of wealth, and enjoyed sending 
them to dig for gold in places where it was believed 
none could be found. These practical jokers were 
sometimes designated as "Smart Alecks" and it hap- 
pened frequently that the "Greenhorns" sent on a sup- 
posed fool's errand found a Good Luck streak instead 
of the expected discomfiture. 

In IMay, 1857, three young Germans walked from 
Sacramento to J-ackson, a distance of fifty miles, carry- 
ing their blankets on their backs with tools and grub, 
intending to find a mine. They knew as much about 
placer mining as an elephant kriows about feathers. 
Going to a place called Butte Gulch, they were told 
by some Old Timers there to work a pile of old tailings 
washed from a claim worked out a few years before. 
Owing to a lack of water, the pile had to be carried 
in buckets quite a distance to where a supply of water 
could be obtained to wash the pile within a rocker. 
The}^ worked steadily a week digging and carrying 
the tailings from the claim to where they could be 
washed, when they were ready to do so. During this 
time, they were the butt of the Old Timers, who were 
greath^ amused to see three green Dutchmen 

182 



owners. They were always profuse with their thanks 
working an abandoned claim that would not pay for 
their salt. The Germans bought a rocker and began 
to wash their pile. In a few days they sold forty 
ounces of gold dust worth about $700 and they con- 
tinued to work for several months, making an ounce 
a day. The tailings covered a pay streak of gravel 
that had been overlooked and untouched by the first 
to the Old Timers who directed them to go there to 
mine. 

On July 4:, 1853, four "Greenhorns," just from the 
East by steamer, appeared on Wood's Creek in Tuol- 
umne County, looking for diggings. They met a 
"Smart Aleck" who directed them to a place w^here 
he said he had just abandoned a claim and they w^ere 
welcome to take possession and help themselves to 
whatever they found there. They found the place 
and worked that afternoon. IMuch to their surprise 
they uncovered a twelve-pound nugget, also a five- 
pound one and enough smaller ones to make their 
clean up amount to a little over $4000 in gold. That 
evening, before they had hardly time to congratulate 
themselves upon their good luck, a committee of min- 
ers waited upon them. They w^ere informed ^ the 
ground they had been working belonged to two miners 
who had gone to Sonora to celebrate the Fourth and 
would return in a day or two ; that claim-jumping was 
a crime that would not be condoned in that locality 
and they w^ould have to ''git up and git" or fight. 
They moved on and it is doubtful if the owners of the 
claim ever knew what their celebration of the Fourth 
cost them in nuGfgets they never found. 



At Placerville in 1853 a miner had worked a fort- 
night stripping a claim to pay dirt and bed rock and 
then found it was not paying anything. Thinking it 



183 



worthless, he put on a bold front and induced three 
''Greenhorns," just arrived, to buy it from him for 
$150. They commenced working the next day, washing 
every bit of dirt and during the afternoon they struck 
a pay streak several feet above the bed rock, where it 
was not expected to be found, that paid $100 to the 
pan. The original owner sauntered over while they 
M^ere in the midst of their good luck and tried to buy 
the claim back, but it was useless and he had the 
chagrin of knowing that they cleaned up over $6,000 
within a week. 

Near Georgetown, El Dorado County, in 1854, three 
miners were working a placer claim that was located 
on a small flat at the mouth of a ravine. It had been 
quite rich, but the bed rock began to rise and the pay 
decreased until it w^as not paying expenses. Just as 
matters had reached a crisis four young men, "Green- 
horns," looking for a claim appeared and desired to 
purchase the outfit and finish mining the flat. It was 
agreed that the new comers should work the claim for 
half a day and then, if satisfied, pay the price the 
owners had named for it, which was based upon what 
it had been rather than what it was. That night the 
owners shot several ounces of coarse gold from a shot 
gun, peppering the bank of the claim freely and well 
"salting" it to make a good showing the next day. 
The "Greenhorns" came on time, mined until noon, 
then cleaned up the sluice boxes and were well pleased 
with the result. They paid the price asked and took 
possession. They worked steadily two days washing 
the "salted" bank. A large boulder of serpentine came 
into view, projecting from the bank, and had to be 
removed. When it was rolled out of the way, there 
came in sight a seam of decomposed quartz containing 
the usual incredible wealth of these veins, and when 
they finished working it, they never knew and would not 

184 



have cared to know they were really swindled when 
they bought the claim. AVhat they took out made the 
price they paid for it look like a mere bagatelle. 



In the early '50s a couple of "Greenhorns," by 
direction of some Old Timers, commenced sinking a 
hole at the foot of Old Hangtown Hill near Piety Point, 
a short distance from Placerville. From the fact it was 
a new place and not believed to carry any gold the 
curiosity of a number of miners passing by was excited 
and they gathered around the hole to guy the new 
comers as they w^orked and panned their dirt. When 
they got down to bedrock, one of the Old Timers took 
the pan of dirt to show the new comers how to pan 
and went down to the creek where water flowed, with 
it, followed by the idlers. Being a practical joker, he, 
on the way down, dropped a specimen he carried as a 
pocket piece weighing about four ounces and worth 
?ibout $60, into the pan of dirt and when the dirt was 
nearly all washed out of the pan it came in view. 
There was a wild rush up the hill to make locations all 
over the vacant ground and claims were staked off in 
a jiffy. The joker laughed heartily as he watched them 
making their locations and after enjoj^ing himself sev- 
eral minutes, turned his attention to washing out the 
balance of the pan of dirt. Then came his inning. 
There was a flock of little nuggets around his specimen 
that sent him scampering up the hill to get in on the 
find. Placer ground as rich as any found near Hang- 
town was developed here. 

JUST LUCK 

Disasters, that caused a financial loss sometimes 
proved to be the forerunner of a streak of Good Luck. 
And, while they were at the time of their occurrence 
viewed with dismay and alarm they sometimes turned 
out to be blessings in disguise. 

185 



In 1856 a number of brick masons proceeded to 
open a brickyard on a bank of clay in Five Pound 
Gulch near San Andreas. They built a whim and had 
made several thousand bricks and preparatory to burn- 
ing a kiln, had placed them to dry and harden in the 
open air. A heavy rain storm set in and dissolved the 
new made bricks into mud again. In the muddy mess 
there came into view a large number of chispas and 
an investigation showed that the clay from which the 
bricks were made was "lousy" with gold. It resulted 
in the opening of a rich placer claim and the washing 
away of the proposed brickyard in sluice boxes instead 
of burning the earth in a kiln. 



In June, 1857, what was known as Kimball's Ditch 
in Sierra County broke. It supplied water to the mines 
in the neighborhood of Kanaka Buttes. The rush of 
water down the steep hillside washed away a large 
quantity of earth and left exposed a large section of 
bedrock. Upon this bedrock was a strata of gravel 
deposited by an ancient stream buried many feet deep 
by the changes of nature. When the gang of men sent 
to make repairs to the ditch arrived and the water was 
shut off, they saw the exposed bedrock covered with 
nuggets. In a very short time over $9,000 worth were 
picked up. More than three hundred locators of claims 
were soon on the ground and many subsequently made 
fortunes out of their holdings. 



During the winter of 1857 at Prospect Slide near 
Volcano, Amador County, a freshet caused a heavy slide 
to occur in a gravel claim that had, at much expense, 
just been opened up. This cave was at hrst viewed 
with dismay by the owners and financial difficulties 
stared them in the face. Subsecpiently, it was found, 
that the cave exposed a long and deep crevice from 

186 



which was taken on the first day it was worked nearly 
eight pounds of gold worth $1,700. 



The Yuba River flowing through high precipitous 
bluffs is a stream that rapidly rises when a storm breaks 
upon the Sierras. This frequently was a cause of dis- 
aster to the miners working the bars above the foothills. 

In the fall of 1853 a heavy rain storm suddenly 
began and caused an unexpected rise of the river. To 
save their mining equipment from being floated away by 
the flood, many miners had to risk their lives, as well as 
their investments. While busily engaged in saving his 
sluices and tools a miner saw the floating body of a 
drowned miner drift into shallow water on the bar. 
Hastening to it, he had just time to grasp the coat 
collar, as the rising current carried the body away and 
^the coat, pulling off, was left in his hands. The pockets 
held a jack knife and a buckskin purse containing a 
pound of gold dust, but nothing to show who the 
drowned miner was. The body floated down the river 
several miles further into the flume of a mining com- 
pany, where it lodged and stopped the flow of water. 
One of the miners was sent to ascertain the cause and 
finding the body, removed it to the bank. It was then 
clad only in a shirt and trousers, but around the waist 
was a treasure belt in w^hich was carried eleven pounds 
of gold. It was probably the result of the dead man's 
season of work on the Yuba, but who he was, from 
whence he came and how he met his sad fate was never 
ascertained. 

LUCK IN BURIED GOLD 

Early in the '50s the practice was begun by the 
placer miners, who did not squander their gold dust, 
to place it in tin cans and bottles and bur^^ it in some 
convenient place about their cabin or claim. In 1858. 
several small school boys, playing in the lot where the 
Odd Fellows Hall then stood in Sonora, unearthed a 



soda water bottle containing nearly a pound of gold 
dust. As no claimant appeared and the old settlers 
could not fit a recollection to appl}^, the bottle must 
have been buried soon after Sonora was begun. 

After Adams Express Company failed and caused 
several thousand miners to lose their deposits placed 
with that company, and, owing to the uncertain finan- 
cial condition many business men had got into in 1854 
and later, the number of placer miners who buried 
their surplus gold dust greatly increased. 

Many of these hidden treasuries, owing to loss of 
bearings, death and the unexpected changes of location 
of their sextons, still remain beneath the sod. There 
they will stay until, in some unexpected way, Good 
Luck to some individual uncovers them. 



On an October day in '60 a young citizen of San 
Andreas started for a day of shooting in the foothills 
near that town. On starting out his wife requested him 
to bring her a bunch of ferns, if he found any that 
were suitable for her to use in decoration. During the 
afternoon, he was seated to rest awhile on the bank of 
a gully where a small rivulet trickled down the hillside 
oyer the rocks, into the creek below. Several feet away, 
growing out from under a stone, was a luxuriant bunch 
of ferns, the fronds of which were large and attractive 
and just what he knew would please his wife. Taking 
out his jack knife, he separated the roots of the plant, 
from the earth in a circle around it, then pulled the 
bunch of ferns from beneath the rock. Attached to 
the roots, which had grown through the rust eaten holes, 
was the lid of a tin can. Wondering how it could have 
found such a resting place, he looked under the rock 
into the hole made there and saw a rust-eaten tin can, 
which he pulled out and found filled with nuggets. It 
had been there a decade at least. No mining had been 
done on the creek for several years nor had there been 

188 



for five years any cabin within half a mile of the buried 
treasure. How and when the owner and his treasure 
became separated will probably never be known. 

Two brothers arrived in Placerville from the East 
in March, 1856, and looking for a claim to mine were 
directed, by an acquaintance, to a ravine about a mile 
north of the town. The first day they spent in digging 
a ditch to convey water to their sluice box. On the 
morning of the second day, after working a few hours, 
they heard the thumping of a large tin can rolling 
through the sluice box. It had been washed out of the 
bank of their ditch and rolled by the head of water 
dow^n into the sluice box. On removing it from the 
sluice box and taking off the lid, they found it full of 
nuggets. They quit at once and taking their find to town 
sold the gold for $11,000. Concluding they were rich 
enough, they left on the next stage for San Francisco 
and took the steamer "home." About two hours after 
the steamer sailed, the sheriff of El Dorado County 
arrived in search of them and the coin. The tin can 
of gold belonged to an Irishman named "Mike" who 
mined and lived near the ravine and had buried it for 
safe keeping. While it was being washed into view, 
he was in Placerville celebrating St. Patrick's Day. 
When the sheriff' returned and reported his non-success 
"Mike" only remarked: "Be jabers, thin, I have 
plenty more handy and I '11 kape it safe. ' ' 

In 1853 a negro on a prospecting trip and bound for 
the Tuolumne River stopped at the base of Table Moun- 
tain near Shaw's Flat. There he saw, sticking its nose 
out of the ground, a nugget weighing thirty-five pounds. 
Not desiring to carry it with him nor of turning back 
from his trip, he buried it where he had found it and 
went on. He returned in about three weeks and turned 
an inky paleness when he saw a company of Italians 
working the ground where he had buried his nugget. 

ISO 



Fortunately, they had missed it by a few feet and the 
treasure was not lost to him. 



In 1857 a miner near Columbia, Tuolumne County, 
concluded to go to Fraser Hiver. He had about $3,000 
in gold dust he did not need and decided to bury it. 
About 9 o'clock on a full moon night, he selected a 
spot, where the moonbeams, passing between the forks 
of a tree struck the ground where the shadow of the 
top of another tree met them. Here he dug a hole 
about three feet deep and cached his treasure. Two 
3^ears later he returned, unsuccessful and in need, and 
sought the spot for his buried gold. The full moon was 
there just as bright but it now shed its moonbeams 
unobstructed over a treeless acreage. The ruthless axe 
of the miner had felled the trees and left the field so 
that the returned miner was completely stumped. He 
dug over au acre of ground, at every likely spot and 
searched for a month, when he gave it up. It 
may be there j^et, as the man and the incident were 
soon forgotten. 



Thomas Hodge mining at Coon Hollow, near Placer- 
ville, in 1857, filled a soda water bottle with between 
five and ten pounds of gold dust and buried it on his 
claim. A year later he was taken with the Fraser 
Eiver fever and concluded to dig up his bottle and go. 
Search he made for it, but in vain. He could not find 
it and left without it. A year afterward he returned 
and resumed work on his claim. A young man named 
Van Logan began working the adjoining ground and 
a month or so later he found Hodge's bottle of gold 
dust some twenty feet distant from where Hodge 
thought he had buried it. Logan was alone when he 
found it, but was honest, hunted up Hodge and refused 
to accept half of the contents of the bottle when it was 
offered him by the happy owner. 

190 



A miner named George Archer at Jackson Gate on 
the North Fork of Jackson Creek in 1851, buried a 
can containing- about $800 in gold in the ground floor 
of his cabin. In '53 he, intending to move and mine 
in a gulch at Butte City, a few miles away, dug for 
the buried can and was unable to find it. He sus- 
picioned a neighboring miner, and as circumstantial 
evidence confirmed his suspicion, he accused the man 
of taking it. There came near being bloodshed over 
it. Several other parties at different times occupied 
the cabin until 1858, when it accidentally caught fire 
and burned down. Archer, on learning of this, con- 
cluded to make another search for his can of gold and 
digging up the ground floor of the cabin, he finally 
found it, several feet away from where he thought he 
had buried it. The miner accused of stealing it now 
had his inning. 



In January, 1859, a company of Frenchmen were 
working a claim on Coyote Flat near Sonora and began 
washing away the ground on which a miner's cabin 
had once stood. A tin can came into view that con- 
tained eighteen pounds of gold dust and made them 
some $4,000 richer. It was believed that the gold was 
buried bv a miner who died in 1855. 



A miner named Denton in June, 1860, was living in 
a cabin and working a claim near Timbuctoo in Yuba 
Count}'-. One evening, it being necessary to chop a 
supply of wood for cooking purposes, he cut down an 
old oak tree that stood near his cabin. On splitting the 
trunk open, it was found to be hollow a portion of its 
length. The hollow place contained a buckskin sack 
full of nuggets that weighed thirty-five pounds and was 
worth $7,500. It had, from appearance, been concealed 
a long time and as no claimant ever showed up, the 

191 



original owner who hid the sack must have passed away 
before it was found by Denton. 



One of the most interesting incidents told of buried 
gold is that connected with "Nigger Jim." He was a 
slave who came to California from one of the Southern 
States with his master in 1849. They w^ent to the 
]\Iokelumne River to mine and located a claim on one 
of the creeks flowing from the hills of Calaveras County 
into the river. In the spring of 1850 the master was 
accidentally drowned and "Nigger Jim" took posses- 
sion of the mine, cabin and personal effects, as w^ell 
as his freedom. Nobody paid any attention to what he 
did as all were intent on digging their own fortunes. 
After a time he moved further up the creek, built 
for himself a substantial cabin, planted a small orchard 
and cultivated a small garden, raising peanuts, prin- 
cipally, to give to his white folk friends. He had a 
few chickens, a dog and a gun, and while he occa- 
sionally mined in the creek or in some of the ravines, 
he lived as easy going and careless a life as a negro 
could enjoy. As the placers became worked out the 
miners gradually left, and he became, in time, almost 
the only person living on the creek. He lived alone, 
a sort of a hermit's life, until early in the '80s, when 
he appeared wandering about Lancha Plona and Campo 
Seco, making inquiry of every person he met: "Hab 
jo^ seen Sonny? He gone done me up." It soon 
developed that "Nigger Jim" had gone daft and he 
was taken care of by the authorities. He kept up his 
refrain about "Sonny" until he passed away, and while 
his attendants sometimes heard him muttering about 
the loss of a pile of gold, they considered it the 
hallucination of a diseased mind. Some time afterward 
a prominent young attorney of San Francisco learned 
from a Calaveras County friend of "Nigger Jim's" end 
and recognized in himself the missing "Sonny" the old 



192 



darkey was supposed to be dreaming about. When lie 
was a lad seven or eight years of age in '59, his father 
mined on the creek and the family lived near to 
"Nigger Jim's" cabin. The boy was given the child 
name of "Sonny" by his mother and he and "Nigger 
Jim" became good friends, the boy often visiting the 
cabin to eat the peanuts that the darkey took pleasure 
in roasting for him. One evening, shortly before his 
father moved away from the creek to live elsewhere, he 
Avas in "Nigger Jim's" cabin and the old fellow became 
reminiscent. After talking awhile about old times 
dow^n South, he disappeared a few minutes and then 
returned with four large oyster cans filled with nuggets 
from a half ounce to three or four ounces in weight. 
These he emptied into a pile on the cabin table and 
while "Sonny" played jack stones with a few of the 
nuggets, the old negro went through the details of how 
and where he found the largest gold lumps and ended 
by saying he was keeping them to give, before he died, 
to the person he loved the best in the whole w^orld. 
At that time his affection centered on "Sonny" and 
to him he intended to will the wealth piled on the table 
and plenty more where these came from. They parted., 
"Sonny," with the coming of the responsibilities of life 
forgot the incident until the death of "Nigger Jim" 
brought back the recollection of it. There is no ques- 
tion but that he saw the nuggets, not only that, but he 
handled them and the mystery now is what became of 
them. Were the cans stolen and did the shock of find- 
ing them gone unhinge the old darkey's intellect or did 
the inroads of senility cause his memory to fail and be 
unable to locate his buried treasure? The impression 
that "Sonny" had taken the gold may have been the 
result of either of these two conditions. The cabin was 
carefully searched, the ground around it thoroughly 
probed but the nuggets could not be found. The oyster 
cans with their treasure of nuggets may be still hid and 

193 



will so remain until some lucky person will unexpect- 
edly reveal the hiding place and get the benefit of 
"Nigger Jim's" frugality and good intentions. 

Near Robinson's Ferry in Calaveras County is Jack- 
ass Hill. In its heyday six hundred miners dug for- 
tunes out of its auriferous soil. In the '50s one of the 
first to mine there was a man who was uncommunicative 
and solitary. No one seemed to know his name or 
career and his surly manner kept every one at a dis- 
tance. He lived alone in a cabin of his own unaided 
construction and labored with a feverish energy in the 
quest of gold, and it was well known he had been 
lucky. One morning he was found murdered in his 
cabin ; the ground floor had been dug up, the stone of 
the fireplace torn out and the whole place thoroughly 
searched for the sullen man 's treasure. Evidently it had 
not been found and the men who perpetrated the crime 
were not discovered. Years passed on and the cabin, 
which nobody cared to occupy, fell by decay to pieces. 
Fifteen years after the miner had been murdered and 
the memory of the man and the crime was almost for- 
gotten, a man named Johnson appeared; made a loca- 
tion and built a cabin on the hill. He began to act 
in a peculiar manner that gave his neighbors an 
impression he was daft. He was seen frequently in 
the vicinity of the old cabin of the murdered miner 
where he professed to be prospecting for a quartz vein. 
He shunned acquaintance and was morose and sullen 
whenever spoken to. All at once his manner changed 
and he was seen no more around the old cabin, but 
was often noticed in another locality sitting on a log 
or rock in a deep reverie, avoiding every one who came 
near to him. One day, Johnson accosted another 
miner working on the hill with the request: "Can I 
go home with you? I want company." The other 
miner gave him a courteous invitation to come along 

194 



and then inquired: ''What is bothering you?" "I 
cannot tell 3'ou, " replied Johnson, dropping his head 
and looking at the ground and he remained silent until 
the cabin was reached. Soon afterward, Johnson in- 
formed his companion that he was going to leave the 
place forever. "It is accursed," said he. "What ails 
you man?" asked his listener. "I'll tell you. I've got 
to tell it to somebody," answered Johnson and he grew 
very much agitated: "Do you know anything of the 
man who was murdered in that cabin at the bottom 
of the hill years ago? Well, the men who killed him 
did not find his gold. " " My God, man ! You did not 
have a hand in that crime, did you?" asked his 
listener. "No, no," exclaimed Johnson, "but out in 
Nevada I met a man and we got to bunking together. 
One day he got caved on and we got him out in a 
dying condition. Before he died he confessed to me 
that he and another man had committed the murder 
and that he knew the victim's gold was still buried 
about the cabin. The thing haunted me day and night 
and I had to come here and search for it. I searched 
and searched until discouraged and was about to give it 
up when I found it by accident. It was not as much 
as I expected, ten or twelve thousand dollars' worth, 
perhaps more, and it was buried in an old pan. I 
waited until dark and then carried the pan to liiy 
cabin. I set it down on the table while I made a fire 
to cook my supper. After the fire was started, I looked 
at the pan of gold and the gold was bleeding. I, after 
a time, mustered up courage to touch the gold and 
there was no mistake there was gore upon it. Then I 
washed it clean and sat down and watched it for a 
time. It did not bleed again and I got my supper. 
After finishing, I again looked at the gold and my 
heart stood still. Every nugget was oozing a drop of 
blood! At last in terror and desperation I carried the 
pan back to its former hiding place and buried it. I 

195 



have had no peace of mind since." Johnson went 
crazy and died in the Stockton Asylum. 

In 1853 a Swiss named Schmidt was working a 
claim near Civil Usage, a locality about a mile and a 
half from Auburn. He occupied a cabin built on the 
bank of the ravine, near his claim. He worked stead- 
ily, was frugal and believed to have saved considerable 
gold dust. One day he was found dead in his claim, 
shot from behind, and as nothing of value was found 
about his person or cabin, it was believed he had been 
robbed, after being killed. 

In March, 1856, a Chinaman took possession of the 
deserted cabin intending to mine the ravine. While 
taking stones out of the mud and stone chimney that 
Schmidt had built, in order to fix a fire place to boil 
his rice over, he pried up a large stone, which exposed 
a cavity beneath, in which was a buckskin sack con- 
taining the gold dust Schmidt had put away. Ac- 
cording to the estimate made by a miner who saw the 
sack, it must have contained about $8,000 worth. 
Before the public administrator heard of it and could 
get a move on the Chinaman, he was an non est man. 
It was believed Schmidt was murdered by a Chileno, 
who was soon afterward lynched for another crime in 
Amador County. This incident shows in a very con- 
spicuous way the cosmopolitan population of California 
at that time. Here was a man born within sight of 
the Alps, in Central Europe, shot by a man born on 
the western slope of the Andes in South America, whose 
acts benefited a man born where the Great Chinese Wall 
casts its shadow in Asia, and Avho was being chased by 
a county official born in ]\Iissouri in the center of 
North America; all here for the single purpose of 
getting gold. 

A traveler through the placer mining district re- 
marked this in a letter he wrote detailing his experi- 
ence in a mining town where he arrived in the evening 

196 



and desired something- to eat. He was attracted by a 
large sign reading "French Restaurant," also "Meals 
at all hours." Entering, he found the place run by a 
Mulatto from Louisiana, who rented the premises from 
a Jew; employed a Chinese cook and a young Austrian 
as a waiter. He found being served, a Scotchman, 
an Irishman and a Welshman who was accompanied 
by his native son. The traveler was from Ohio. He 
ascertained that meat was furnished by a ]3utch 
butcher; vegetables b}^ an Italian gardener; bread by 
a French baker; milk by a Portuguese milkman and 
a IMexican woman did up the laundry. 

A BIG POKER GAME 

Many a fortune was found in the placers that w^as 
lost at the gambling table. One of the biggest poker 
games played during this placer mining period w^as at 
Coyoteville, Nevada County, during the last week of 
October, 1851. Four miners who were working and 
were the owners of the richest placer claim in that 
locality, started a poker game at $5 "ante" and "pass- 
ing the buck" to pass the evening away. It grew in 
proportions until finally it w^as being played at $25 
"ante" for each and no limit. When the game ended, 
Jack Breedlove had won all the stakes Avhich consisted 
of coin and gold dust amounting to $22,000. After a 
rest the game was resumed upon a basis of valuation 
of their claim at $40,000, in four shares of $10,000 
each. When this sitting ended, Zeke Roubier had won 
back $8,000 and held his interest in the claim. Breed- 
love still retained $14,000 of the coin and gold and had 
the half interest in the claim of the other two players 
making his winning $34,000, minus what he started 
with. He offered the two losers, employment in the 
claim, at an ounce a day, but they declined to stay, 
and rolling up their blankets and some personal effects 
they went their way to find new diggings and recoup. 

197 



Incidents 



We went down the hill 
Into Downieville 
To pick our pile; 
We came up the hill 
Out of Downieville 
Without a shirt or tile. 



INCIDENTS 

In '49, on Carson Creek, a miner died and his 
friends arranged to bury him as decently as possible. 

A grave was dug near his cabin ; his coffin was made 
with pine boards, planed, and stained black. 

There was no minister on the Creek, so a clergicnl 
looking miner, who had been nicknamed the "Deacon." 
and who had a bible and some religious books, was 
asked to officiate. 

The friends of the deceased gathered around the 
grave in the afternoon. The "Deacon" spoke an 
eulogy; read from the epistle of St. Paul and then 
knelt in prayer. 

While he prayed, one of the miners, with downcast 
eyes, who was standing upon some of the dirt thrown 
out in the digging of the grave, saw a nugget sticking 
out of the dirt. He stooped and picked it up just as 
the "Deacon" said Amen! The attention of some of 
the other miners was attracted to the nugget finder and 
this caused the "Deacon" to look that way. "What's 
that?" interrogated he. "Gold! Gold! Hold on boys! 
Postpone this funeral until we locate our claims." And 
locate they did. The embryo graveyard proved to be 
a rich placer. Another grave was dug where ground 
did not appear to show a "color" and the funeral 
ceremonies were finished there. 



In 1850 a man and his wife kept a hotel in Sacra- 
mento. It was a popular stopping place for the miners 
visiting that city. Many of them left, from time to 
time, deposits of gold dust with the proprietor. He 
died in 1851 and in his safe was found over $50,000 in 
packages of different sizes, left with him by a score or 
more of miners. The widow succeeded in locating the 
owners and delivering all the packages except one. 
This contained over $3,000 in gold dust. As time went 

199 



on and the owner did not appear, it was concluded he, 
too, had passed to the great beyond and the widow 
could call the gold her own. But, the lady kept the 
package intact, and probably, was not surprised in 
1859, when the owner appeared and asked for his 
deposit. He had been in Trinity County, isolated and 
so far away, he had not heard of any changes. He 
was surprised to find that death had taken away the 
custodian and fire had destroyed the place where, nine 
years previously, he had deposited his gold dust. He 
received his deposit from the lady, who had faithfully 
kept it, with the same nonchalance as though he had 
left it only the day before. 



The son of a Southern planter in 1850 came to 
Placerville with an old slave, as a sort of a bodyguard, 
to view the situation. One night the old darkey 
dreamed that there was a rich deposit of nuggets 
beneath the cabin of a neighbor and he seriously told 
his master of his dream. The young Southerner laughed 
it off. A few nights afterward, the old darkey had 
the same dream again. He became so impressed with 
it that he insisted on his young master giving it atten- 
tion and acting upon it. The easy going young South- 
erner bought the ground, more to satisfj^ the Avhim of 
his bodyguard than any other reason, and then set him 
to work developing his dream. The first day of work 
yielded $20,000 and that was probably about one-half 
of what they took out of the ground he purchased as 
dreamland. 



What is in a name? Good luck is sometimes con- 
nected with one. 

In the '50s two miners named Given and Stickney 
entered into a partnership to work a claim on the 

200 



American River in El Dorado Connt3\ They had to 
sink much deeper than they had expected to do to 
reach pay dirt and when they got down about forty 
feet. Given began to get discouraged. The increase of 
the flow of water was steady and caused a continual 
caving of the sides of the hole and other difficulties 
arising, the partners began to dispute and finally quar- 
reled. Given now concluded to quit. This caused 
Stickney to express his feelings in this ultimatum: 
''Your name is Given and you are going to be true to 
the sound of it and Give in. My name is Stickney and 
I'm going to stick." And he did. He finally succeeded 
in sinking the hole a short distance deeper and struck 
it rich. 



A miner named John Marshall in August, 185-i, 
working on Sherlock Creek in Mariposa County, while 
removing a pile of rocks, by hand, which was in the 
way of his sluice box line, picked up a seven pound 
nugget. This, owing to it having been incrusted with 
a black substance of some kind, he had previously cast 
aside as a rock when it had been ground sluiced from 
a bank. The find netted him $1,500. 



A miner named Gibson in July, 1859, was working 
a claim near Vallecito. In clearing his sluices of rocks, 
he took out what looked like a grayish piece of stone 
and he was about to cast it aside when its heavy weiglit 
attracted his attention. It proved to be a nugget weigh- 
ing six pounds and worth over $1,200. It was covered 
with a hard grayish cement and had to be vigorously 
rubbed against other rocks before the glitter of the gold 
was seen. 



201 



In April, 1855, a 3'oiing man named William 
Graham was in Mariposa. He was not doing anything 
and decided to try his Inck in Sonora. Owing to the 
low ebb his finances were in, he had to walk. AVhen on 
a hill abont two miles from the town, at the head of 
Algerine Gulch, he sat down on a large stone to rest 
a few minutes, While kicking one of his heels into the 
dirt he noticed a small piece of gold come into view. 
It was afterward sold for $2. The finding of it gave 
to him the idea there might be more of the same land 
nearby. He went down into Sonora, procured a pick 
and pan, and returned to the head of the gulch. He 
dug out six pounds of gold that afternoon and started 
an excitement that opened up a lot of good paying 
claims on Algerine Gulch, but, as is not usually the 
case with discoverers, his own proved to be one of the 
best. 

During the summer of 1857, three young men, 
miners at Iowa Hill, named J. C. Coleman, J. H. Neff 
and Godfrey Rudolph had frequent arguments and dis- 
putes as to where the rich channel, being mined at Iowa 
Hill, came from. It finally led to their having a survey 
made in November, 1857, which resulted in the organi- 
zation, on Thanksgiving Day, of the Morning Star Mine. 
The consensus of opinion, from their constant argument 
and disputes was, that the channel came across from 
Indian Canyon, opposite Iowa Hill. A tunnel Avas 
started for the deposit of auriferous gravel lying in 
the bed of the buried ancient stream. The tunnel now 
is over four thousand feet in length; it is beneath the 
ancient channel. Over one hundred dividends have 
been paid. Two million dollars in gold have been taken 
out. The fortune enjoyed by Jake Neff, as he was 
popularly known, came from his love of argument and 
his fixed opinions as to where the ancient buried channel 
lay opposite Iowa Hill. 

202 



The vicissitudes of placer mining are well shown 
in the history of the ' ' Deaclman 's " claim, near North 
San Juan, Nevada County. This claim was located in 
January, 1853, by two miners named Chadbourne and 
West. In order to get the required fall to carry off 
the tailings it Avas necessary to dig a deep cut. They 
were working in this in March, '53, when the bank 
on one side caved in and buried them under many 
tons of earth. They were not missed for several days, 
but, when it became apparent they had been caved 
upon, all the miners in the vicinity worked in shifts 
for several days getting their bodies out. Each owner 
had a brother to whom their estates went and these 
brothers sold the claim to Louis Buhring and Peter 
Lassen for $300. The new owners worked it without 
hardly more than making expenses. This was on ac- 
count of the variable supply of water causing frequent 
periods of enforced idleness. They sold, from time to 
time, interests to others, until in 1856 there were 
seven partners. Then a ditch company brought in an 
ample supply of water for the mine to be opened and 
worked in a systematic manner. In August, 1857, the 
partners began working it economically and steadily 
and from that date until December, 1858, a period of 
sixteen months, they took out $156,300. 

This made a net sum of over $20,000 for each part- 
ner. The claim w^as eighty feet wide, one hundred 
and eighty feet long and averaged one hundred feet 
deep. In 1860 all that remained was the bedrock sur- 
face cleaned of its alluvial covering and hidden wealth. 

THE DESERTED PLACER 

Gone is the sluice, the pick and the pan; 

Gone is the cabin; gone is the man; 

Gone are the nuggets that on the bedrock lay, 

In the coin of the realm their glint will stay; 

Over the bedrock bare, the tailing piles are spread, 

203 



No more to rattle 'neath the miner's heavy tread. 
No sound now is heard, save, the chatter of the jay 
And the rap, rap, of the woodpecker, not a-far away, 
Gone is the life, the strife, that greed for gold impels. 
And all around, over all, a solemn stillness dwells. 



In 1853 a miner in Coon Hollow, El Dorado County, 
had a claim which he delved in for a year and went 
broke. The location did not pay expenses and he had 
to seek better diggings. The claim he abandoned, had 
a bad reputation and nobody cared to take it. He 
wandered around with the usual ups and downs for 
four years when he drifted back to Coon Hollow. Re- 
newing old acquaintance, he learned from the miners 
working thereabout, that his old claim had remained 
untouched through the years he had been absent. A 
desire to try his luck in it again grew so strong that 
he resumed operations where he had left oft'. Two days 
after he had begun work, he struck a pay streak from 
which he took $450 and he averaged over an ounce a 
da}'^ for more than a year afterward from the once 
abandoned claim. 



Near where Indian Creek joins the San Antonio in 
Calaveras County, a marble ledge crosses the latter 
stream and the ledge is from seventy-five to one hundred 
feet in width. The bed of the stream and its banks 
paid well below the marble vein, but every company 
that mined across it, regretted the expense and loss 
of time the poor results gave them. The smooth sur- 
face of the marble ledge held no more gold than a 
graveyard monument. 

A man named Davis, who kept a store near this 
point, became obsessed with the idea that the gold in 
the San Antonio below the marble vein came from the 
erosion of that vein and if the place could be found, 

204 



in the vein that held the gold, that was concealed be- 
neath the hill, it would yield an enormous quantity of 
gold. He probably had an idea it held a decomposed 
strata containing gold like the decomposed quartz seams. 
lie emplo.yed men and searched for the source of the 
gold in the barren marble until, nearly broke and dis- 
gusted, he had to give up. About the time he quit, 
three miners sunk a hole at the downstream side of the 
marble vein on the opposite side of the stream. They 
went down ten or twelve feet, making fair pay, then 
got below the waterline and, not caring to go to the ex- 
pense of putting in a pump, abandoned the claim. A 
short time afterward, three jolly tars navigating the 
San Antonio on foot, came along, and finding a hole 
already sunk, took possession. A few feet of water 
did not bother them and they worked along taking out 
enough pay each day to keep them in grog and grub. 
As the water kept getting deeper and deeper, they 
took turns in stripping off their clothes, diving to the 
bottom with a pan and bringing up, between breathing 
spells, a few handfuls of pay dirt. They had worked 
this way over two months when a miner named Thomp- 
son chanced to stop and watch their operations. On 
seeing their clean up for the day he offered them $500 
for their claim, which they accepted. Thompson took 
a miner named Chase into partnerehip. They put up 
a one-horse whim and a hopper to dump the dirt in and 
began work. They found one of the richest claims on 
the creek. The sailors went to San Andreas and had a 
glorious spree. When broke, they returned and opened 
a claim above the marble vein, which paid them an 
ounce a day, when they chose to work it. Not only that, 
but good pay was found in the bank over the marble 
vein and had Davis made his search for the source 
of the gold supply on that side of the stream, instead 
of where he did, while, he would not have found the 
source of the gold, he would have found something 
equally as good. 



20; 



The Tuolumne River makes a long gradual bend 
around Indian Bar. The bar had been worked from 
1849 until 1859 continuously. Three different buried 
channels, of great richness, had been found. The last 
one was a very expensive proposition to work, requiring 
the sluicing off of thirty to forty feet of earth to reach 
pay dirt and now, in November, 1859, a high ledge of 
rock on one side and the river on the other, with ex- 
posed bedrock and piles of tailings between and a few 
Chinese, the scavengers of the placers, working there, 
Avas all that was left of the once populous and busy bar. 

Pat Givens, an experienced miner, passing that point 
on a November morning in '59, took a view of the bar, 
the river, and the hills. He came to the conclusion the 
river once ran above the high ledge exposed and that 
a buried channel was covered by the hills. He tried 
to induce other miners to join him in a search for it, 
but he was ridiculed and laughed at by every one he 
approached. Then his Irish dander got up and he 
went after it alone. He started a tunnel into the hill 
above the high ledge and at a distance of thirty feet 
struck gravel that paid him twenty-five ounces for his 
first day's work. He then had no difficulty in getting 
partners and three miners named Jones, Manning and 
Deary joined him. For the next month they were tak- 
ing out $30 a day to the man and seven other compan- 
ies were located along the hill tunneling for the buried 
channel Pat Givens had found. 



John Sykes was a typical hard luck prospector. He 
began in 1850 by going up the American and locating 
a claim on Volcano Bar. Here he sank a hole four 
or five feet deep, and not getting an ounce a day was 
very much disgruntled. Then he heard of rich diggings 
on the Yuba and off he went to the new gold fields. 
About a month afterward a man named Webster, look- 
ing for a claim, commenced work where Sykes left off 

206 



and soon found a pay streak from which he washed a 
fortune in a few months. His claim, showing signs of 
petering, he quit and went home to the Eastern States 




OLD JEREMIAH, THE LAMENTER 



with his gold dust. A year later four miners opened it 
up again and took from it several thousands of dollars. 
In the meantime, Sykes had reached Durgan Flat, near 



207 



Downieville, a locality from which over $4,000,000 was 
dug in ten years, and he got a claim there. He sank 
a hole as deep as a man working alone could dare to 
go and obtained such poor results that he sold it to 
three miners for $100. They sunk the hole only two 
feet deeper when they began to take out the gold in 
bucketsful and cleaned up $60,000 in sixty days, Sykes, 
in lamenting his lack of luck, declared that the next time 
he started to sink a hole, he would not stop until he 
struck bedrock or hell. 

He finally got located at Weaverville, Trinity 
County, and started a hole which he endeavored to sink 
as deep as he once declared he would, but the expenses 
took his last dollar, all he could borrow and eventually 
made him a bankrupt without striking anything. But, 
Sykes had muscle and experience that made his services 
in demand at regular pay by miners who experienced 
better luck than he, and after ten years of ups and 
downs during the placer mining days, John was working 
for pay by the day. 

LAMENT OF AN OLD PROSPECTOR 

From the early days of '49, 
Without the aid of whiskey, gin or wine. 
In every rush, I've led the line 
Since I started out, to mine. 

With my jack, my pick and pan 
I was always there when the fun began, 
And I asked no odds of any man 
When I started out to mine. 

To Mariposa, quick, I first did fly ! 
Then in Columbia, I made an earnest try, 
And up ]\Iokelumne Hill, I climbed, quite spry, 
In the days of '49. 

208 



In Jackson town, I worked a wicked week, 
Then began to dig on Sntter Creek; 
Of Dry town, I hate to think or speak. 
Since 1 started out to mine. 

At Fiddletown, I said a bitter curse; 
At Hangtown, I went from bad to worse; 
At Anburn, I couldn't fill my purse, 
When I started out to mine. 

At Whiskey Flat, I was good and tight ; 
At Rough and Ready, I had a fight; 
At You Bet, in jail, I spent a night. 
In the days of '49. 

Then down the Yuba, so swift and deep ; 
Up Grizzly Hill, so rough and steep ; 
And at Kanaka Creek, I've took a peep 
Since I started out to mine. 

Then up to Downieville, where gold once grew, 
I hiked. Then down I came with a jolly crew, 
To join a rush on Timbuctoo, 
When I started out to mine. 

I've washed the Mendocino golden sand; 
On the Trinity, I've sluiced and panned; 
From Shasta 's*^ snowy peak I viewed the land. 
In the days of '49. 

Once I thought Yreka filled the bill; 

Then I heard of gold at Sutter's Mill; 

In Yankee Jim, on Iowa Hill; 

Now I've mined and paced from place to place; 

I've joined every rush of the human race; 

But I've never iooked a nugget in the face, 

Since the days of '49. 



209 



A minister, travelling along a trail in Tuolumne 
County in '52, came upon the unusual sight, at that 
time, of a gray-hairecl prospector. He was seated upon 
a stone in the shade of a big oak tree on a small flat 
near the mouth of a gulch. He had a tale of hard luck 
to tell when the minister had made the usual inquiries 
of the period. He had prospected here and there, hardly 
making grub, while others had found thousands to 
squander. He was disappointed, despondent and home- 
sick and despaired of ever making the pile he came for 
and which would enable him to return "home" a happy 
man. The minister endeavored to cheer him with 
hopeful words and finally, as he prepared to go, said: 
"As you seem to be a firm believer in luck, why don't 
you turn over that stone you are sitting on just for 
luck? I've seen gold found in less likelier places than 
this." "Well," replied the old prospector, rising up, 
' ' as you have suggested it, I '11 do it just for luck. ' ' 
Taking his pick, after a few unsuccessful efforts, he 
brought the stone out of its bed and turned it over. 
There in the hole was the yellow glint of nearly a pound 
of small nuggets about the size of pumpkin seeds. The 
bent back became straight, the despondent expression 
gave way in an instant to one of hope and expectancy, 
and with the vigor of a youth, as the minister departed, 
the old prospector began to dig at his first streak of 
good luck. 

DOW'S FLAT 

(1856) 
(By F. Bret Harte.) 

"Dow's Flat." That's its name; 
And I reckon that you 
Are a stranger? The same? 
Well, I thought it was true — 
For thar isn't a man on the river as can't spot 
the place at first view. 

210 



It was called after Dow, 
Which the same was an ass; 
And to the how 
That the thing kem to pass — 

Just tie up your hoss to the buckeye, and sit ye 
down here in the grass. 

You see, this yer Dow 
Hed the worst kind of luck; 
He slipped up somehow 
On each thing thet he struck, 
Why, if he straddled thet fence rod, the derned 
thing 'ud get up and buck. 

He mined on the bar 
Till he couldn't pay rates; 
He was smashed by a car. 
When he tunneled with Bates ; 

And right on the top of his trouble kem his wife 
and five kids from the States. 

It was rough, mighty rough; 
But the boys stood by, 
And they brought him stuff 
For a house, on the sly; 

And the old woman — Well, she did washing and 
took on when no one was nigh. 

But this yer luck of Dow's 
Was so powerful mean 
That the spring near his house 
Dried right up on the green ; 

And he sunk forty feet down for water, but nary 
a drop was seen. 

Then the bar petered out. 
And the boys wouldn't stay; 

211 



And the chills got about, 
And his wife fell away; 

But Dow in his well kept a peggin' in his usual 
ridikilous way. 

One day — it was June 
And a year ago, jest- 



This Dow kem at noon 
To his work like the rest. 

With a shovel and pick on his shoulder, and a 
derringer hid in his breast. 

He goes to the well, 
And he stands on the brink. 
And he stops for a spell 
Jest to listen and think; 

For the sun in his eyes (jest like this, sir!) you see, 
kinder made the cuss blink. 

His two ragged gals 
In the gulch were at play. 
And a gown that was Sal's 
Kinder flapped on a bay; 

Not much for a man to be leavin', but his ali- 
as I've lieer'd the folks say. 

And — that's a peart boss 
Thet you've got, ain't it now? 
What might be her cost? 
Eh? Oh!— Well, then, Dow- 
Let's see — Well, that forty-foot grave wasn't his, 
sir, that day, anyhow. 

For a blow of his pick 
Sorter caved in the side, 
And he looked and turned sick. 
Then he trembled and cried, 



212 



For you see the dern cuss had struck — ' 'water ?" 
Beg your parding, young man, there you lied. 

It was gold — in the quartz, 
And it ran all alike; 
And I reckon five oughts 
Was the worth of that strike; 

And that house with the coopilou's his'n — which 
the same isn't bad for a Pike. 

That's why it's Dow's Flat; 
And the thing of it is 
That he kinder got that 
Through sheer contrairiness ; 

For 'twas water the derned cuss was seekin' and 
his luck made him certain to miss. 



Stillwater Creek on the east side of the Sacramento 
River, in Shasta County, proved a great disappointment 
to the miners who worked there in the '50s. It showed 
excellent prospects when the dirt was panned but the 
gold w^as flakey and so light and feathery it could not 
be saved by the rocker or the sluice box methods then 
in use. Nobody seemed able to solve the problem and 
remove the trouble until an old negro tried a claim on 
the creek. He went up on the hillside and found a 
hollow log which he rolled dow^n into the bed of the 
creek. He fixed it so he could fill it with pay dirt 
and then run a stream of water through, while he 
rolled it from side to side about half turning it over. 
It held the gold all right and when he wanted to clean 
up, he would up end the log and wash its contents into 
a batea. He gathered the gold by ounces while others 
were cursinof their luck. 



213 



A man named Johnson had a claim on Temperance 
Flat, in Placer County, which was worked in 1858 and 
was found to be an old Indian burying ground. A 
number of skeletons were washed out and large quan- 
tities of shell ornaments found. The dirt was very 
rich in gold, some of it yielding as high as $80 to a pan 
and the aborigines interred there were literally buried 
in gold dust. 

In June, 1855, in a claim near Springfield, Tuolumne 
County, a number of Indian acorn mortars were found 
ten feet below the surface. In one was half an ounce 
of gold dust. Deer horns and skulls were also found. 



In 1853 Frederick Eaholtz found in his mine a 
stone mortar and pestle forty feet below the surface, 
near Cherokee, in Butte County. It was buried in the 
blue gravel of an ancient stream. This blue gravel 
deposit does not come near to the surface and it extends 
under Sugar Loaf Hill and the lava formed Table 
Mountain near Oroville. This shows the stream was 
in existence before the lava flow made the elevations 
mentioned. While stone mortars, the relics of the abo- 
rigines, are frequently found deep down in the beds 
of these buried streams, this one received the attention 
of Mr. Amos Bowman, a man of scientific attainments 
and competent to investigate, who endeavored to esti- 
mate the years, or centuries rather, this mortar had been 
imbedded in its covering of cement. His conclusions 
were that at the time it was abandoned by its owner, 
it was upon the seashore and the beach in Butte County 
was then washed by the Pacific Ocean. This was before 
the peaks of the Marysville Buttes showed above the 
surface of the sea and the lava flow that covered the 
beds of the ancient streams had been poured forth 
by volcanic action. From the large number of mor- 
tars found, it was apparent, a numerous tribe lived 
in this vicinity, and that tropical vegetation grew in 

214 



a semi-tropical clime. From the different stratas of 
gravel exposed in the banks of the hydraulic mines and 
the depths of erosions in the canyons of the rivers of the 
present day and estimating, from the eras each has taken 
to form its physical characteristics, he estimated not 
less than 180,000 years have elapsed since this mortar 
lost its owner. As it had been in use for many a year 
previous for grinding the acorns and nuts of that 
period, it is possible it was in use 200,000 years ago. 



In 1855 two miners near Mokelumne Hill began 
working a claim on a flat in the center of which stood 
a noble w^hite oak tree. They worked around it until 
tw^o years later it stood upon a pedestal of earth; its 
roots cut away as near to its trunk as the miners dared 
to go without causing it to fall. It w^as not from 
sentiment that it was allowed to stand, for their is no 
sentiment wasted in mining for gold, but it was the 
expense in labor its broken trunk and limbs would 
cause to remove, if it fell and covered any unwashed 
part of the claim that made them careful and allowed 
it to remain standing. Finally, in December, 1857, 
a gale blew with such pressure the old oak could not 
stand against it and it fell. In the morning the 
miners saw it Ijang prostrate on the bedrock; its 
sturdy limbs fractured and its trunk broken in pieces 
by its fall. Uplifted, held by its roots several feet in 
the air and washed free of dirt by the showers that 
fell during the night, there glittered in the sunlight 
a five-pound nugget worth a thousand dollars. Had 
the old oak written a farewell message of "I forgive 
you," to its despoilers, it could not have said more. 



At Dutch Flat in 1858 a miner struck a strata of 
earth that was different from anything he had ever 
seen before, and considering it worthless, he shovelled 
a large quantity of it out of the way. One day he 



215 



put a handful of it in his overall pocket as he was 
j4ning to his cabin for his noonday meal and there he 
dropped it in a tin dipper and washed it out in a 
bucket of water. It yielded $8 in gold dust and he 
found he had struck it rich for some time without 
knowing- tlie fact. 



At Bath, Placer County, in 1857, two mining com- 
panies were working tunnel claims adjoining each 
other and running some distance into a hill. Their 
dump boxes and sluice wa.ys were very close together 
and on the same level. The Golden Gate Company 
concluded to increase its output by putting on a 
night shift and to do this had to employ a force of 
''greenhorns." The Golden Gate people neglected 
to instruct the gang where to dump the gravel they 
brought out of the tunnel during the night and this 
resulted in fifteen carloads of gravel going into the 
other company's dump box, where the sluice head 
of water, running steadily, quickly washed it out of 
sight. This company, working only during the day 
time, did not discover the error, and when, after ex- 
tracting only four carloads of gravel as that day's 
work, they cleaned up from their sluice boxes over 
$5000, their elation went beyond reasonable bounds. 
They believed they had struck it rich and the value 
of their claim increased in jumps as the result of that 
day's washing became known. On the other hand, the 
owners of the Golden Gate Company, finding that, 
with the addition of a night force and the supposed 
washing of a double amount of gravel the yield was 
less than before, when a day shift only was working, 
had their spirits drooping and feared their claim 
w^as petering. It was several days before the mis- 
take was discovered, but the financial gains and losses 

216 



made through the purchase and sale of interests by 
those supposed to be "on the inside" could never 
be rectified. 



Wm. H. Parks, after whom Park's Bar on the Yuba 
was named, arrived in California a 3^oung man, but 




soon developed the executive ability that made him 
an employer of others in opening up large enterprises. 
He had a claim on the Yuba in which he employed a 
large force of miners and among the number he no- 



217 



ticed one young fellow who always seemed to have a 
large quid of tobacco in his mouth and was an invet- 
erate spitter. One evening at the Park's Bar store, in 
conversation with those gathered there, Parks remarked 
that he believed Bill was one of the biggest tobacco 
chewers on the Bar. The storekeeper drawled out: 
''He never had a chaw of tobacco in his mouth in 
his life." Surprised, Parks asked him how he knew, 
and was told that the man had never bought a plug 
of tobacco. The next morning Parks, passing through 
this claim, came up to this young fellow and noticing 
his cheek puffed out apparently by a larger quid than 
usual, stopped and remarked: ''Bill, that's a mighty 
big quid you have in your mouth. Let's see it?" 
There was a stare of thunderstruck astonishment for 
a moment, then a gulp, followed by a gurgle and the 
man fell prostrate, strangling to death. He had a 
large nugget concealed in his mouth and had tried 
to swallow it. It was too large for his gullet and it 
had stuck in his throat, shutting off his breath at his 
windpipe. It took several minutes to get the nugget 
out of his throat and he came very near strangling 
to death. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD MINER 

I remember, I remember, where once I used to mine, 
My cabin still is standing beneath a sugar pine. 
From daylight in the morning till the sun went out of 

sight, 
Alone, I used to dig for gold, and mend my clothes 

at night. 

I remember, I remember, when grub was very high. 
And miners were very poor and couldn't afford to buy; 

218 



AVe had to live on pork and beans, with little pork, 

indeed, 
And with enough to grease the frying pan, we thought 

we'd struck a lead. 

I remember, I remember, when the Yuba used to pay. 
With nothing but a rocker, a pound and more a day ; 
"We used to think 'twould alwaj^s last, and it would 

with perfect ease. 
If Uncle Sam had only stopped the coming of Chinese. 

— {Old Song.) 



A Frenchmen, working a claim at Tunnel Hill, 
Calaveras County, in May, 1858, refused to pay the 
foreign miner's license of $4 a month and a deputy 
sheriff sold his claim, after attachment, for $27. It 
w^as bought by a man named Gw^yn Raymond. The 
first day he worked it, he cleaned up $3700. The 
next day the Frenchman appeared w^ith a sobbing 
heart and paid Raymond $2700 for it to buy it back. 



At Vallecito, Calaveras County, a strike in 1859, 
caused a rush of locators who began staking out claims. 
One of the locators, in filing his notice, found he 
needed another name to complete the law requirements 
for the number of feet he was filing on. Seeing a 
man named Coon passing by, w^hom he supposed was 
there also for the purpose of locating a claim, he put 
Coon's name on his notice. Six thousand dollars 
was taken out of the claim in a few days and Coon 
did not know he had an interest in it until his divi- 
dend was paid. 



Personal appearances did not ahvays indicate the 
man who had the gold dust in his pocket in the '50s. 



219 



One day in April, 1856, a patriarchal-looking miner, 
with a straggling growth of hair and beard, unkempt 
and unwashed, with horny hands and a battered old 
felt hat on his head, sauntered into Wells, Fargo & 
Company's office in Mariposa and made inquiries of 
the agent how to ship gold dust to a town in the 
Atlantic States. On being given the necessary informa- 
tion, he politely thanked the agent and departed. Two 
days later he came in with several bags of gold dust 
in the pockets of his garments and shipped $75,000 
worth to his home in the East. He then quietly re- 
marked that he would have to go to Shasta and dig 
up some more he had buried up there before he could 
take the steamer and depart for the East. 



Goats and cattle have a penchant for ''chewing the 
rag" and any piece of buckskin that falls across their 
way. It is perhaps due to the salty taste these sub- 
stances have that stimulates the liking. A butcher in 
Calaveras County found in the paunch of a steer he 
slaughtered several $5 pieces and a few nuggets. 
They had probably been swallowed in a buckskin purse 
dropped by some one crossing the grazing grounds of 
the animal. 



Near Yreka, Siskiyou County, in 1855, a miner 
felled a tree near his cabin to obtain his supply of 
firewood. One afternoon he took off his coat and tossed 
it upon a stump and proceeded to chop a quantity of 
sticks from the tree. Out of the pocket of the coat 
stuck the end of a buckskin sack containing over $500 
worth of gold dust. An old milch cow, pastured in the 
vicinity, finally grazed up to where the coat was h^ing 
and the miner glanced at the cow just in time to see 
his sack of gold disappear in the cow's mouth. As a 
bovine swallows and ruminates afterward, there was 



220 



no chance for him to prevent the animal gulping it 
down. He drove her over to her owner's corral and 
there found that she w^as the dearest old animal 
in the world, and, on account of her being such a 
prolific milk producer, she had not an equal in the 
State. Of course, he had to buy her so as to keep 
possession of his gold and it is said that she cost him 
$150. He kept her corralled for ten days, during 
which time he tried in every possible way to effect 
a gold cure without success and then he had to 
kill her. The gold was found in her paunch undam- 
aged but the buckskin sack had been digested. 



Many of the men who went into the storekeeping 
business in the '50s had no previous experience and 
knew little about the goods they were buying and 
selling. One of these novices started a store in 
Hangtown soon after it came into existence and one 
day received in a shipment of goods, from Sacra- 
mento, a barrel that contained something he con- 
sidered had spoiled. Compared with the tub butter 
and dried codfish, it w^as in an aristocracy of smell all 
its own. He rolled the barrel outside of his store 
and left it in the pile of empty boxes, barrels and 
bottles that was accumulating there. A few days after- 
wards, a Dutchman, mining on Weber Creek, came in 
and said: "I want somedings you got outside. I vould 
valk ten miles to get it." "What is it?" asked the 
storekeeper. ''Come mit me. I show you." He took 
the storekeeper to the rubbish pile and pointing to 
the discarded barrel, said: "Dot vas it." "AA^hy," 
said the storekeeper, "that stuff is spoiled." "Nix," 
replied the Dutchman. "I vas know him better as 
you. Shust bust him open and I show you." AVhen 
the head w-as knocked in, the contents proved to be 
a fine article of sauerkraut, put up in Holland and 
shipped to California. It was retailed at $1 a 

221 



pound and brought Dutch trade to the store from 
ten miles around. "Hans," asked the storekeeper, 
"how in the world did you know that was a barrel 
of sauerkraut?" To which Hans replied: "Veil, I 
shust nose it. Dot vas all." Another amusing thing 
connected with it was that this merchant, finding 
he had an article that commanded a profitable trade, 
ordered a supply from the wholesaler in Sacramento, 
who replied he did not have any of the article on hand 
and never carried it, so, it is probable, the barrel 
was a maverick that every Yankee merchant, who 
came in contact with it, considered a dead weight and 
passed it on to get rid of it. 



Two miners in 1859 were travelling the trail from 
White Rock to Placerville when they came to a ravine 
two miles from the town. There three men were 
picking and shovelling dirt into a line of sluice boxes 
while a foppish-looking individual stood upon the 
bank directing operations. He was dressed in what 
then was fashionable attire. A part of this was a 
ruffled bosom white shirt, a yellow vest ; a black silk 
cravat wound twice around a stiff white collar and on 
his head a tall plug hat. The two miners on ascer- 
taining he was the owner of the claim; was too proud 
to work it himself and emplo,yed the three men to 
do it for him, were at first disgusted and then became 
angry as they discussed the situation. According to 
their logic a man who would not work in a placer 
claim himself, should not own one. After consider- 
able argument, threats and dicker, they bought the 
claim and ordered the foppish owner to clear out. 
The}'- then made a gift of the claim to the three men 
who were working in it. These men Avere from Georgia 
and in six weeks' time cleaned up enough to start 
back to their Georgia homes with over $6000 apiece. 



222 



Beyond their calling each other "Tom" and ''Dick" 
they never learned the names of their benefactors. 

In the spring of 1850 a woman on Weber Creek 
was engaged in assisting her husband in working 
a claim. One afternoon, after a heavy rainstorm, she 
wandered up a small ravine and noticed a piece of 
gold that had been washed into view by the freshet. 
She tried to pick it up, but it was too firmly im- 
bedded for her fingers to dislodge it. She returned to 
her cabin and getting a table fork went back to the 
ravine and dug out a thirteen-pound nugget. It was 
kidney shape. Being of a jocose nature, she did not 
tell her husband of her find, but at supper time she 
slipped it into the frying pan and served him a 
fried nugget worth nearly $3000 for his supper. 



A miner, living at Jamison, in 1859, on a Sunday 
morning, had a tiff with his wife regarding how he 
was to spend the day. She desired him to give it 
a religious observance. She, finally went either to 
church, or to talk to a oeighbor, while he took a stroll 
down the creek called Little Fraser. To vent his 
spiteful feelings, he began picking up stones and 
throwing them at bluejays, squirrels or any other 
animate object that came within range. Intending to 
pick up a stone from a pile of tailings that he was 
Avalking over, he got hold of a nugget weighing nearly 
seven pounds and worth about $1500. 



A man named Dunn was mining on Honcut Creek 
and on March 9, 1856, he found in his claim a nugget 
weighing eight pounds and worth $1700. On reaching 
home that evening he found Mrs. Dunn ill with an 
expected event about to happen. A son was born 
before midnight and when placed in the scales with 
the nugget they were so evenly balanced that for a 

223 



momeut it could not be told which might be slightly 
the heavier, but, a yell and a wriggle from the native 
son showed that he was heavier than the nugget and 
consequently worth more than his weight in gold. 



In July, 1857, a miner, working his claim on Middle 
Bar on the Mokelumne River, noticed a prospector 
with a burro ladened wdth his tools, cooking utensils 
and blankets passing from the Amador to the Cal- 
averas side and disappear up the trail to Mokelumne 
Hill. An hour or two afterward he started for the 
Hill to get some supplies and about a mile from the 
Bar found lying, by the side of the trail, a pair of 
boots. Having neecl of the pair, he hid them in the 
brush and on his return took them to his cabin. He 
began wearing them to w^ork in his claim, but they 
were heavily doublesoled and it tired his feet so much 
lifting their extra weight, that he had to discontinue 
their use and they were thrown aside into a corner 
of his cabin where they lay undisturbed a couple of 
weeks. One night he picked up one of the boots and on 
examining it found the extra sole, instead of being 
pegged or nailed on, was fastened by several small 
brass screws. Thinking, to make them serviceable 
by removing the extra sole, he, using his jack-knife 
for a screwdriver, removed the screws. When the 
sole dropped off, ten $20 gold pieces fell on the 
cabin floor with it. The other boot, treated the same 
way, yielded an equal number of double eagles. The 
old prospector, who lost them, evidently fearing he 
would be robbed, had concealed his wealth in this 
way only to lose it, as the finder and the loser never 
met each other again. 



Four Chinamen bought a partially-worked out 
placer claim in 1857 in Long Hollow, near Rouncl 



224 



Tent, Nevada County, for a few hundred dollars. 
After working it for a few daj^s, they struck a pocket 
that yielded them $4000 in two days. This was as 
long- as they were allowed to own it. There was such 
a rush of white men to the place that the Celestials 
considered themselves fortunate to get away in safety 
with their tails hanerins: behind them. 



There w^as an old w^oman, she had three sons ; 
Joshua, James and John. 
Josh was hung, James was drow^ned, 
John was lost and never was found, 
And that was the end of the three sons, 
Joshua, James and John. 
Chorus 

John I. Sherwood 

John I. Sherwood 

John I. Sherwood 

is going home and gone. 

This was a popular song with the placer miners 
of the '50s and sung with ''vim and vinegar" in 
Methodist long meter from Yreka to Mariposa when- 
ever a gathering of miners, in a jovial mood, occurred. 
It seems to have originated at Nevada City and was 
first sung by a leading young lawyer there under 
unique circumstances. 

There was a Fourth of July celebration in 1850 
in Nevada City that brought to the town a few 
thousand miners from the river, creeks and gulches 
of that section. Placards about the town announced 
that there w^ould be a fight in a pen to be erected 
near Centerville (now Grass Valley) in the afternoon 
between a ferocious grizzly bear and the champion 
kicking jackass of California, and a big crowd went 
there from Nevada City in search of the excitement. The 
jackass it was claimed had whipped a bull in Sonora; 

225 




226 



killed another in San Andreas; knocked out a Cali- 
fornia lion in Hangtown, and had been brought to 
Nevada County to meet the grizzly. A ring had been 
made with pine stakes driven into the ground and 
fastened with pieces of rawhide. An inclosure had 
been made with small pine trees and chaparral piled 
around it and secured with ropes. An admission fee 
of $2 was charged and about two thousand paid and 
entered the inclosure. A log cage concealed the grizzly, 
while the jackass was tied to a stake and was con- 
tentedly nibbling grass in the ring. When the 
cage door was opened, to the great disappoint- 
ment of the audience, the grizzly did not make its 
expected wicked rush. Finally, after considerable 
poking with a pole, the lurking grizzly loitered out 
of the cage and proved to be a medium-sized Cinna- 
mon bear. It seemed to be frightened at the crowd, 
but when he saw the jackass, he appeared to recog- 
nize an old acquaintance and with a smile of recogni- 
tion on his jaws moved leisurely toward him. The 
jackass was now suspicious and when the bear got 
close enough he suddenly whirled around and de- 
livered, with both hind hoofs, a thundering whack in 
the ribs. The bear rolled over twice then got on his 
feet. One jump took him out of the ring and another 
over the brush fence of the inclosure. He was safely 
out of sight in the chaparral before any spectator 
could draw his gun and fire at him. The jackass re- 
sumed his nibbling of the grass, while the crowd 
started a movement to lynch the fakers, but they 
had mounted fleet mustangs and disappeared in a 
cloud of dust. There was not a gray beard nor a 
bald head in this gathering of youth and brawn and 
they turned their attention to the hero in the ring. 
A few jovial spirits took the jackass in charge and 
forming a procession behind him led him into Nevada 
City, singing the "John I. Sherwood" song over and 

227 




228 



over as they marched along. When they arrived at 
Caldwell's store and bar, they "soaked" the jackass 
for the drinks for the crowd. Caldwell then named an 
ounce of gold as the cost of redeeming the pledge. 
It was quickly contributed and the jackass again 
headed a procession to another bar where the pawning 
and redeeming was repeated. All day long, until 
daylight the next day, wdth the crowd singing "John 
I. Sherwood," the jackass was pawned and redeemed, 
until too husky to sing, the last survivor of the 
spree let the jackass go, and he, with bulging sides 
from the liberal supply of feed given him, sought a 
spot in the first vacant lot he found to contentedly 
sleep for the next tw^enty-four hours. 

The identity of "John I. Sherwood," like the lost 
John, seems never was found. 



Soon after the discovery of silver ore on the Com- 
stock lode, the newspapers of California almost unani- 
mously expressed the opinion that silver deposits in 
large quantities existed in California and would be 
found by prospectors if they knew what to look for. 
This resulted in a large number of prospectors picking 
up anything that had a shining appearance under the 
supposition it was silver ore, and there were many il- 
lusionary silver ore discoveries reported that proved 
to be costly errors. One of these occurred in Siskiyou 
County. One day a typical prospector sauntered into 
an assay office in Yreka, and taking a lounging position 
against the counter drew from a trouser pocket a piece 
of rock. Handing it to the assayer, he laconically 
asked: "What's this?"_The assayer, after examining 
it a moment, laid it down and answered: "Mica." 

Then the following conversation took place. 

"Ain't it silver ore?" 

"No, No trace of silver about it." 

"What's it worth an ounce?" 

"Nothing." 

229 



The prospector involuntarily gasped and gazed, 
apparently dumfounded, at the assayer a few moments 
and then slowly enunciated: 

' ' Great God ! I Ve just married a widow with 
eight children because she owned a ledge of this." 

"THE DAYS OF OLD, THE DAYS OF GOLD, 
THE DAYS OF '49" 

Here you see old Tom Moore, a relic of former days; 
A bummer, too, they call me now, but what care I 

for praise? 
iM}^ heart is filled with the days of old, and oft do 

I repine 
For the days of old, and the days of gold, and the 

days of '49. 

I had comrades then who loved me well, a jovial, 

saucy crew ; 
There were hard cases, I must confess, but still they 

were tried and true ; 
They would never flinch whate'er the pinch, would 

ne'er fret nor whine. 
But like good old bricks, would stand the kicks, 

in the days of '49. 

There was Kentuck Bill, I know him well, a fellow 
so full of tricks; 

At a poker game he was always there, and heavy, 
too, as bricks ; 

He would play you draw, would ante a slug, or a hat- 
ful blind; 

But in a game of death Bill lost his breath, in the 
days of '49. 

There was Racensac Ike, he could outroar a Buffalo 

bull, you bet; 
He could roar all day, and roar all night, I believe 

he's roaring vet. 



230 



One night he fell into a prospect hole, it was a roar- 
ing bad design. 

For in the hole he roared out his soul, in the days 
of '49. 

There was New York Jake, a butcher boy, so fond 

of getting tight. 
And whenever Jake was on a spree he was spoiling 

for a fight. 
One night he ran against a knife in the hands of old 

Bob Kline; 
And over Jake we held a wake, in the days of '49. 

There was Monte Pete, I'll never forget, for the luck 

he always had; 
He'd play you both night and day, as long as you 

had a skad. 
One night a pistol shot laid him out, 'twas his last 

layout in line; 
It caught Pete sure, risht in the door, in the 

days of '49. 

There was old lame Jess, that mean old cuss, who 

never would repent; 
He never missed a single meal and never paid a cent ; 
But poor, old Jess, like all the rest to death did at 

last resign; 
For in his bloom, he went up the flume, in the 

days of '49. 

Of all the comrades I had then, not one remains 

to toast; 
They've left me here in my misery like some poor 

wandering ghost; 
And as I go from place to place, folks call me a 

traveling sign, 
Sayino- ''There's old Tom IMoore, a bummer, sure 

from the days of '49." 

23] 



Now is the Time to Buy 
a Lot in 

Brighton Townsite 

The first Subdivision adjoining the City of 

Sacramento on the East — the direction 

Sacramento is growing and must continue 

fn grow ======== 

Easy Terms 

Appl}^ for Information to 

REED & ELLIOTT 

REAL ESTATE AGENTS 
1010 Eighth Street Sacramento, Cal. 



'V'-V; 




V 



^ A'i '^.m-.-:, -n 






*^0^ 






^°"<^. 



.0- 







^i."^ ^^ \""^^<^/M:J''' 



